Loneliness
Now it is Loneliness who comes at nightInstead of Sleep, to sit beside my bed.Like a tired child I lie and wait her tread,I watch her softly blowing out the light.Motionless sitting, neither left nor rightShe turns, and weary, weary droops her head.She, too, is old; she, too, has fought the fight.So, with the laurel she is garlanded.
Through the sad dark the slowly ebbing tideBreaks on a barren shore, unsatisfied.A strange wind flows ... then silence. I am fainTo turn to Loneliness, to take her hand,Cling to her, waiting, till the barren landFills with the dreadful monotone of rain.
Words in this poem
- loneliness n.
- The condition of being lonely; solitude; seclusion.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- dreadful a.
- Full of dread or terror; fearful.
- monotone n.
- A single unvaried tone or sound. [See Monotonous, Monotony.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Loneliness is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59276; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Katherine Mansfield, Loneliness, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/loneliness.html, id L27579.
Form and metre
Loneliness is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 ABBAABAB nightA · bedB · treadB · lightA · rightA · headB · fightA · garlandedB
- 2 AABCCB tideA · unsatisfiedA · fainB · handC · landC · rainB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Now it is Loneliness who comes at night | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Instead of Sleep, to sit beside my bed. | 10 | ˘/····˘/·· |
| Like a tired child I lie and wait her tread, | 10 | ··/······· |
| I watch her softly blowing out the light. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Motionless sitting, neither left nor right | 10 | /˘˘/˘/˘··· |
| She turns, and weary, weary droops her head. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| She, too, is old; she, too, has fought the fight. | 10 | ·········· |
| So, with the laurel she is garlanded. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Through the sad dark the slowly ebbing tide | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Breaks on a barren shore, unsatisfied. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| A strange wind flows ... then silence. I am fain | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To turn to Loneliness, to take her hand, | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Cling to her, waiting, till the barren land | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Fills with the dreadful monotone of rain. | 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.