Trentals
Now these lovers twain be dead,And together buried:Masses only shall be said.Hush thee, weary melancholy!Music comes, more rich and holy:Through the aged church shall soundWords, by ancient prophets found;Burdens in an ancient tongue,By the fasting Mass-priest sung.
Gray, without, the autumn air:But pale candles here prepare,Pale as wasted golden hair.Let the quire with mourning descantCry: In pace requiescant!For they loved the things of God.Now, where solemn feet have trod,Sleep they well: and wait the end,Lover by lover, friend by friend.
Words in this poem
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- quire v. i.
- To sing in concert.
- descant v. i.
- To sing a variation or accomplishment. [From descant; n.; or directly fr. OF. descanter, deschanter; L. dis- + cantare to sing.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Trentals 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, Trentals, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/trentals.html, id L12553.
Form and metre
Trentals is 18 lines in 2 stanzas of 9 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 AAA--BBCC deadA · buriedA · saidA · melancholy · holy · soundB · foundB · tongueC · sungC
- 2 AAABBCCDD airA · prepareA · hairA · descantB · requiescantB · godC · trodC · endD · friendD
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Now these lovers twain be dead, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And together buried: | 6 | ·˘/˘/˘ |
| Masses only shall be said. | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Hush thee, weary melancholy! | 8 | ··/˘/˘·˘ |
| Music comes, more rich and holy: | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Through the aged church shall sound | 6 | ······ |
| Words, by ancient prophets found; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Burdens in an ancient tongue, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| By the fasting Mass-priest sung. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Gray, without, the autumn air: | 7 | ····/˘· |
| But pale candles here prepare, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Pale as wasted golden hair. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Let the quire with mourning descant | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Cry: In pace requiescant! | 6 | ······ |
| For they loved the things of God. | 8 | ···˘···· |
| Now, where solemn feet have trod, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Sleep they well: and wait the end, | 7 | ······· |
| Lover by lover, friend by friend. | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
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.