Home
There is the pool, the flowers as of old,There the hibiscus at the gates of gold,And there the willows round the palace rise.In the hibiscus flower he sees her face,Her eyebrows in the willow he can trace,And silken pansies thrill him with her eyes.
How in this presence should his tears not come,In spring amid the bloom of peach and plum,In autumn rains when the wut`ung leaves must fall?South of the western palace many treesShower their dead leaves upon the terraces,And not a hand to stir their crimson pall.
Ye minstrels of the Garden of the Pear,Grief with the touch of age has blanched your hair.Ye guardians of the Pepper Chamber,** nowNo longer young to him, the firefly flitsThrough the black hall where, lost to love, he sits,Folding the veil of sorrows round his brow,
Alone, and one by one the lanterns die,Sleep with the lily hands has passed him by,Slowly the watches of the night are gone,For now, alas! the nights are all too long,And shine the stars, a silver, mocking throng,As though the dawn were dead or slumbered on.
Cold settles on the painted duck and drake,The frost a ghostly tapestry doth make,Chill the kingfisher's quilt with none to share.Parted by life and death; the ebb and flowOf night and day over his spirit go;He hunts her face in dreams, and finds despair.
Words in this poem
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- firefly n.
- Any luminous winged insect, esp. luminous beetles of the family Lampyridæ.
- drake n.
- The male of the duck kind. [Akin to LG. drake, OHG. antrache, anetrecho, G. enterich, Icel. andriki, Dan. andrik, OSw. andrak, andrage, masc., and fr. AS. ened, fem., duck; akin to D. eend]
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Home is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Lute of Jade, Project Gutenberg ebook #390, the L. Cranmer-Byng translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Various, Home, in A Lute of Jade (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #390, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lute-of-jade/home.html, id L15597.
Form and metre
Home is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABCCB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 13% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABCCB oldA · goldA · riseB · faceC · traceC · eyesB
- 2 AABCCB comeA · plumA · fallB · treesC · terracesC · pallB
- 3 AAB--B pearA · hairA · nowB · flits · sits · browB
- 4 AABCCB dieA · byA · goneB · longC · throngC · onB
- 5 AABCCB drakeA · makeA · shareB · flowC · goC · despairB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There is the pool, the flowers as of old, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| There the hibiscus at the gates of gold, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| And there the willows round the palace rise. | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| In the hibiscus flower he sees her face, | 10 | ··˘/˘/···· |
| Her eyebrows in the willow he can trace, | 10 | ·/···/···· |
| And silken pansies thrill him with her eyes. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| How in this presence should his tears not come, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| In spring amid the bloom of peach and plum, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| In autumn rains when the wut`ung leaves must fall? | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| South of the western palace many trees | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Shower their dead leaves upon the terraces, | 11 | /˘······/˘˘ |
| And not a hand to stir their crimson pall. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Ye minstrels of the Garden of the Pear, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Grief with the touch of age has blanched your hair. | 10 | ·········· |
| Ye guardians of the Pepper Chamber,** now | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| No longer young to him, the firefly flits | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| Through the black hall where, lost to love, he sits, | 10 | ·········· |
| Folding the veil of sorrows round his brow, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Alone, and one by one the lanterns die, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Sleep with the lily hands has passed him by, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Slowly the watches of the night are gone, | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| For now, alas! the nights are all too long, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| And shine the stars, a silver, mocking throng, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| As though the dawn were dead or slumbered on. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Cold settles on the painted duck and drake, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The frost a ghostly tapestry doth make, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| Chill the kingfisher's quilt with none to share. | 10 | ··/·˘····· |
| Parted by life and death; the ebb and flow | 10 | /˘········ |
| Of night and day over his spirit go; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| He hunts her face in dreams, and finds despair. | 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.