The Isle of Portland
The star-filled seas are smooth to-nightFrom France to England strown;Black towers above the Portland lightThe felon-quarried stone.
On yonder island, not to rise,Never to stir forth free,Far from his folk a dead lad liesThat once was friends with me.
Lie you easy, dream you light,And sleep you fast for aye;And luckier may you find the nightThan ever you found the day.
Words in this poem
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Isle of Portland is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Shropshire Lad, Project Gutenberg ebook #5720; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: A. E. Housman, The Isle of Portland, in A Shropshire Lad (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5720, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/housman-shropshire-lad/the-isle-of-portland.html, id L04436.
Form and metre
The Isle of Portland is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB nightA · strownB · lightA · stoneB
- 2 ABAB riseA · freeB · liesA · meB
- 3 A-A- lightA · aye · nightA · day
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The star-filled seas are smooth to-night | 8 | ········ |
| From France to England strown; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Black towers above the Portland light | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| The felon-quarried stone. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| On yonder island, not to rise, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Never to stir forth free, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Far from his folk a dead lad lies | 8 | ········ |
| That once was friends with me. | 6 | ······ |
| Lie you easy, dream you light, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And sleep you fast for aye; | 6 | ······ |
| And luckier may you find the night | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Than ever you found the day. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.