In the Hay-Loft
The darkness in the loft is sweet and warmWith the stored hay ... darkness intensifiedBy one bright shaft that enters through the wideTall doors from under fringes of a stormWhich makes the doomed sun brighter. On the hay,Perched mountain-high they sit, and silentlyWatch the motes dance and look at the dark skyAnd mark how heartbreakingly far awayAnd yet how close and clear the distance seems,While all at hand is cloud--brightness of dreamsUnrealisable, yet seen so clear,So only just beyond the dark. They wait,Scarce knowing what they wait for, half in fear;Expectance draws the curtain from their fate.
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- expectance n.
- The act of expecting ; expectation.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In the Hay-Loft is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #24364; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Aldous Huxley, In the Hay-Loft, in The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24364, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/huxley-defeat-of-youth/in-the-hay-loft.html, id L21997.
Form and metre
In the Hay-Loft is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAC--CDDEFEF warmA · intensifiedB · wideB · stormA · hayC · silently · sky · awayC · seemsD · dreamsD · clearE · waitF · fearE · fateF
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 iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The darkness in the loft is sweet and warm | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| With the stored hay ... darkness intensified | 10 | ····/˘˘/˘· |
| By one bright shaft that enters through the wide | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Tall doors from under fringes of a storm | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Which makes the doomed sun brighter. On the hay, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Perched mountain-high they sit, and silently | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| Watch the motes dance and look at the dark sky | 10 | ·········· |
| And mark how heartbreakingly far away | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And yet how close and clear the distance seems, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| While all at hand is cloud--brightness of dreams | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Unrealisable, yet seen so clear, | 9 | ········· |
| So only just beyond the dark. They wait, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Scarce knowing what they wait for, half in fear; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Expectance draws the curtain from their fate. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
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.