The Old House
In through the porch and up the silent stair;Little is changed, I know so well the ways;--Here, the dead came to meet me; it was thereThe dream was dreamed in unforgotten days.
But who is this that hurries on before,A flitting shade the brooding shades among?--She turned,--I saw her face,--O God, it woreThe face I used to wear when I was young!
I thought my spirit and my heart were tamedTo deadness; dead the pangs that agonise.The old grief springs to choke me,--I am shamedBefore that little ghost with eager eyes.
O turn away, let her not see, not know!How should she bear it, how should understand?O hasten down the stairway, haste and go,And leave her dreaming in the silent land.
Words in this poem
- hurries n.
- A staith or framework from which coal is discharged from cars into vessels.
- flitting n.
- A flying with lightness and celerity; a fluttering.
- agonise v. i.
- To writhe with agony; to suffer violent anguish. [F. agoniser, LL. agonizare, fr. Gr. Agony.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- stairway n.
- A flight of stairs or steps; a staircase.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Old House is in the public domain. This text is taken from A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #56974; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Amy Levy, The Old House, in A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56974, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/levy-london-plane-tree/the-old-house.html, id L21549.
Form and metre
The Old House is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 stairA · waysB · thereA · daysB
- 2 ABAB beforeA · amongB · woreA · youngB
- 3 ABAB tamedA · agoniseB · shamedA · eyesB
- 4 ABAB knowA · understandB · goA · landB
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 through the porch and up the silent stair; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Little is changed, I know so well the ways;-- | 10 | /˘········ |
| Here, the dead came to meet me; it was there | 10 | ·········· |
| The dream was dreamed in unforgotten days. | 10 | ·········· |
| But who is this that hurries on before, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A flitting shade the brooding shades among?-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| She turned,--I saw her face,--O God, it wore | 10 | ·········· |
| The face I used to wear when I was young! | 10 | ·········· |
| I thought my spirit and my heart were tamed | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To deadness; dead the pangs that agonise. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The old grief springs to choke me,--I am shamed | 10 | ·········· |
| Before that little ghost with eager eyes. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| O turn away, let her not see, not know! | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| How should she bear it, how should understand? | 10 | ········˘/ |
| O hasten down the stairway, haste and go, | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| And leave her dreaming in the silent land. | 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.