Memories with the Dusk Return
The yellow dusk winds round the city wall;The crows are drawn to nest,Silently down the westThey hasten home, and from the branches call.A woman sits and weaves with fingers deftHer story of the flower-lit stream,Threading the jasper gauze in dream,Till like faint smoke it dies; and she, bereft,Recalls the parting words that diedUnder the casement some far eventide,And stays the disappointed loom,While from the little lonely roomInto the lonely night she peers,And, like the rain, unheeded fall her tears.
Words in this poem
- deft a.
- Apt; fit; dexterous; clever; handy; spruce; neat. [OE. daft, deft, becoming, mild, gentle, stupid (cf. OE. daffe, deffe, fool, coward), AS. dæft (in derivatives only) mild, gentle, fitting, seasonable; akin to d]
- casement n.
- A window sash opening on hinges affixed to the upright side of the frame into which it is fitted. (Poetically) A window. [Shortened fr. encasement. See Incase 1st Case, and cf. Incasement.]
- eventide n.
- The time of evening; evening. [AS. æfentid. See Tide.]
- disappointed a.
- Defeated of expectation or hope; balked; as, a disappointed person or hope.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Memories with the Dusk Return 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, Memories with the Dusk Return, in A Lute of Jade (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #390, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lute-of-jade/memories-with-the-dusk-return.html, id L15577.
Form and metre
Memories with the Dusk Return is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBACDDCEEFFGG. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.6 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% 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 ABBACDDCEEFFGG wallA · nestB · westB · callA · deftC · streamD · dreamD · bereftC · diedE · eventideE · loomF · roomF · peersG · tearsG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The yellow dusk winds round the city wall; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The crows are drawn to nest, | 6 | ······ |
| Silently down the west | 6 | /˘˘··· |
| They hasten home, and from the branches call. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| A woman sits and weaves with fingers deft | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Her story of the flower-lit stream, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·· |
| Threading the jasper gauze in dream, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Till like faint smoke it dies; and she, bereft, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Recalls the parting words that died | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| Under the casement some far eventide, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| And stays the disappointed loom, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| While from the little lonely room | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Into the lonely night she peers, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And, like the rain, unheeded fall her tears. | 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.