Our Lady of France
Leave we awhile without the turmoil of the town;Leave we the sullen gloom, the faces full of care:Stay we awhile and dream, within this place of prayer,Stay we, and pray, and dream: till in our hearts die downThoughts of the world, unkind and weary: till Christ crownLaborious day with love. Hark! on the fragrant air,Music of France, voices of France, fall piercing fair:Poor France, where Mary star shines, lest her children drown.
Our Lady of France! dost thou inhabit here? Behold,What sullen gloom invests this city strange to thee!In Seine, and pleasant Loire, thou gloriest from of old;Thou rulest rich Provence; lovest the Breton sea:What dost thou far from home? Nay! here my children foldTheir exiled hands in orison, and long for me.
Words in this poem
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
- turmoil v. t.
- To harass with commotion; to disquiet; to worry.
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- unkind a.
- Having no race or kindred; childless. [See Kin kindred.]
- breton a.
- Of or relating to Brittany, or Bretagne, in France. [F. breton.]
- orison n.
- A prayer; a supplication. Chaucer. [OF. orison, oreson, oreison, F. oraison, fr. L. oratio speech, prayer. See Oration.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Our Lady of France 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, Our Lady of France, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/our-lady-of-france.html, id L12472.
Form and metre
Our Lady of France is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 ABBAABBA townA · careB · prayerB · downA · crownA · airB · fairB · drownA
- 2 ABABAB beholdA · theeB · oldA · seaB · foldA · meB
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Leave we awhile without the turmoil of the town; | 12 | ··˘/···/···· |
| Leave we the sullen gloom, the faces full of care: | 12 | ···/˘··/˘··· |
| Stay we awhile and dream, within this place of prayer, | 12 | ··˘/········ |
| Stay we, and pray, and dream: till in our hearts die down | 12 | ········/··· |
| Thoughts of the world, unkind and weary: till Christ crown | 12 | ····˘/·/˘··· |
| Laborious day with love. Hark! on the fragrant air, | 12 | ˘/˘······/˘· |
| Music of France, voices of France, fall piercing fair: | 12 | /˘··/˘···/˘· |
| Poor France, where Mary star shines, lest her children drown. | 12 | ···/˘····/˘· |
| Our Lady of France! dost thou inhabit here? Behold, | 13 | //˘····˘/˘·˘/ |
| What sullen gloom invests this city strange to thee! | 12 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘··· |
| In Seine, and pleasant Loire, thou gloriest from of old; | 13 | ·/˘·/˘··/˘··· |
| Thou rulest rich Provence; lovest the Breton sea: | 12 | ····/˘···/˘· |
| What dost thou far from home? Nay! here my children fold | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| Their exiled hands in orison, and long for me. | 12 | ·/···/˘˘···· |
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.