"To Weep Irish"
Long Irish melancholy of lament!Voice of the sorrow, that is on the sea:Voice of that ancient mourning music sentFrom Rama childless: the world wails in thee.
The sadness of all beauty at the heart,The appealing of all souls unto the skies,The longing locked in each man's breast apart,Weep in the melody of thine old cries.
Mother of tears! sweet Mother of sad sighs!All mourners of the world weep Irish, weepEver with thee: while burdened time still runs,Sorrows reach God through thee, and ask for sleep.
And though thine own unsleeping sorrow yetLive to the end of burdened time, in pain:Still sing the song of sorrow! and forgetThe sorrow, in the solace, of the strain.
Words in this poem
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- appealing a.
- That appeals; imploring.
- solace n.
- Comfort in grief; alleviation of grief or anxiety; also, that which relieves in distress; that which cheers or consoles; relief. [OF. solas, ssoulaz, L. solacium, solatium, fr. solari to comfort, console. Cf. Console, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
"To Weep Irish" 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, "To Weep Irish", in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/to-weep-irish.html, id L12484.
Form and metre
"To Weep Irish" is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 ABAB lamentA · seaB · sentA · theeB
- 2 ABAB heartA · skiesB · apartA · criesB
- 3 -A-A sighs · weepA · runs · sleepA
- 4 ABAB yetA · painB · forgetA · strainB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Long Irish melancholy of lament! | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘·˘/ |
| Voice of the sorrow, that is on the sea: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Voice of that ancient mourning music sent | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| From Rama childless: the world wails in thee. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| The sadness of all beauty at the heart, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The appealing of all souls unto the skies, | 11 | ·˘/˘······· |
| The longing locked in each man's breast apart, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Weep in the melody of thine old cries. | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Mother of tears! sweet Mother of sad sighs! | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| All mourners of the world weep Irish, weep | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Ever with thee: while burdened time still runs, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Sorrows reach God through thee, and ask for sleep. | 10 | /˘········ |
| And though thine own unsleeping sorrow yet | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Live to the end of burdened time, in pain: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Still sing the song of sorrow! and forget | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| The sorrow, in the solace, of the strain. | 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.