Dead
In Merioneth, over the sad moorDrives the rain, the cold wind blows:Past the ruinous church door,The poor procession without music goes.
Lonely she wandered out her hour, and died.Now the mournful curlew criesOver her, laid down besideDeath's lonely people: lightly down she lies.
In Merioneth, the wind lives and wails,On from hill to lonely hill:Down the loud, triumphant gales,A spirit cries Be strong! and cries Be still!
About this text
Dead is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #66520; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lionel Johnson, Dead, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/dead.html, id L12501.
Form and metre
Dead 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 iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 -A-A moor · blowsA · door · goesA
- 2 ABAB diedA · criesB · besideA · liesB
- 3 ABAB wailsA · hillB · galesA · stillB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In Merioneth, over the sad moor | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Drives the rain, the cold wind blows: | 7 | ······· |
| Past the ruinous church door, | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| The poor procession without music goes. | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Lonely she wandered out her hour, and died. | 10 | /˘·/˘··/·· |
| Now the mournful curlew cries | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Over her, laid down beside | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Death's lonely people: lightly down she lies. | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| In Merioneth, the wind lives and wails, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| On from hill to lonely hill: | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Down the loud, triumphant gales, | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| A spirit cries Be strong! and cries Be still! | 9 | ·/······· |
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.