Lispeth
When the Earth was sick and the Skies were grey,And the woods were rotted with rain,The Dead Man rode through the autumn dayTo visit his love again.
His love she neither saw nor heard,So heavy was her shame;And tho' the babe within her stirredShe knew not that he came.
Words in this poem
- rode n.
- Redness; complexion. [See Rud.]
- babe n.
- An infant; a young child of either sex; a baby. [Cf. Ir. bab, baban, W. baban, maban.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lispeth is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs from Books, Project Gutenberg ebook #15529; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Rudyard Kipling, Lispeth, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/lispeth.html, id L20291.
Form and metre
Lispeth is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 greyA · rainB · dayA · againB
- 2 ABAB heardA · shameB · stirredA · cameB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When the Earth was sick and the Skies were grey, | 10 | ·········· |
| And the woods were rotted with rain, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| The Dead Man rode through the autumn day | 9 | ······/˘· |
| To visit his love again. | 7 | ·/˘··˘/ |
| His love she neither saw nor heard, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| So heavy was her shame; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And tho' the babe within her stirred | 8 | ········ |
| She knew not that he came. | 6 | ······ |
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.