A Meeting
Softly she came one twilight from the dead,And in the passionate silence of her lookWas more than man has writ in any book:And now my thoughts are restless, and a dreadCalls them to the Dim Land discomforted;For down the leafy ways her white feet took,Lightly the newly broken roses shook--Was it the wind disturbed each rosy head?
God! was it joy or sorrow in her face--That quiet face? Had it grown old or young?Was it sweet memory or sad that stungHer voiceless soul to wander from its place?What do the dead find in the Silence--grace?Or endless grief for which there is no tongue?
Words in this poem
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- voiceless a.
- Having no voice, utterance, or vote; silent; mute; dumb.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Meeting is in the public domain. This text is taken from The man with the hoe, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #67012; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Markham, A Meeting, in The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #67012, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/markham-man-with-hoe/a-meeting.html, id L24749.
Form and metre
A Meeting is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 ABBAABBA deadA · lookB · bookB · dreadA · discomfortedA · tookB · shookB · headA
- 2 ABBAAB faceA · youngB · stungB · placeA · graceA · tongueB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Softly she came one twilight from the dead, | 10 | /˘···/···· |
| And in the passionate silence of her look | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Was more than man has writ in any book: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And now my thoughts are restless, and a dread | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Calls them to the Dim Land discomforted; | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| For down the leafy ways her white feet took, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Lightly the newly broken roses shook-- | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Was it the wind disturbed each rosy head? | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| God! was it joy or sorrow in her face-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| That quiet face? Had it grown old or young? | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Was it sweet memory or sad that stung | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Her voiceless soul to wander from its place? | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| What do the dead find in the Silence--grace? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Or endless grief for which there is no tongue? | 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.