In Death Valley
There came gray stretches of volcanic plains,Bare, lone and treeless, then a bleak lone hill,Like to the dolorous hill that Dobell saw.Around were heaps of ruins piled betweenThe Burn o’ Sorrow and the Water o’ Care;And from the stillness of the down-crushed wallsOne pillar rose up dark against the moon.There was a nameless Presence everywhere;In the gray soil there was a purple stain,And the gray reticent rocks were dyed with blood--Blood of a vast unknown Calamity.It was the mark of some ancestral grief--Grief that began before the ancient Flood.
Words in this poem
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- treeless
- Destitute of trees. C. Kingsley.
- dolorous a.
- Full of grief; sad; sorrowful; doleful; dismal; as, a dolorous object; dolorous discourses. [L. dolorosus, from dolor: cf. F. douloureux. See Dolor.]
- piled a.
- Having a pile or point; pointed. [From 2d Pile.]
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- nameless a.
- Without a name; not having been given a name; as, a nameless star.
- reticent a.
- Inclined to keep silent; reserved; uncommunicative. [L. reticens, p. pr. of reticere to keep silence; re- + tacere to be silent. See Tacit.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In Death Valley 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, In Death Valley, 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/in-death-valley.html, id L24777.
Form and metre
In Death Valley is 13 lines in a single stanza. 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 ----A--A-B--B plains · hill · saw · between · careA · walls · moon · everywhereA · stain · bloodB · calamity · grief · floodB
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 came gray stretches of volcanic plains, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Bare, lone and treeless, then a bleak lone hill, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Like to the dolorous hill that Dobell saw. | 11 | ···/˘˘····· |
| Around were heaps of ruins piled between | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The Burn o’ Sorrow and the Water o’ Care; | 11 | ···/˘··/˘·· |
| And from the stillness of the down-crushed walls | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| One pillar rose up dark against the moon. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| There was a nameless Presence everywhere; | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| In the gray soil there was a purple stain, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And the gray reticent rocks were dyed with blood-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Blood of a vast unknown Calamity. | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘˘ |
| It was the mark of some ancestral grief-- | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Grief that began before the ancient Flood. | 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.