The Goblin Laugh
When I behold how men and women grindAnd grovel for some place of pomp or power,To shine and circle through a crumbling hour,Forgetting the large mansions of the mind,That are the rest and shelter of mankind;And when I see them come with wearied brainsPallid and powerless to enjoy their gains,I seem to hear a goblin laugh unwind.
And then a memory sends upon its billowThoughts of a singer wise enough to play,Who took life as a lightsome holiday:Oft have I seen him make his arm a pillow,Drink from his hand, and with a pipe of willowBlow a wild music down a woodland way.
Words in this poem
- grovel v. i.
- To creep on the earth, or with the face to the ground; to lie prone, or move uneasily with the body prostrate on the earth; to lie fiat on one's belly, expressive of abjectness; to crawl. [From OE. grovelinge, grufelinge, adv., on the face, prone, which was misunderstood as a p. pr.; cf. OE. gruf, groff, in the same sense; of Scand. origin, cf. Ic]
- billow n.
- A great wave or surge of the sea or other water, caused usually by violent wind. [Cf. Icel. bylgja billow, Dan. bölge, Sw. bölja; akin to MHG. bulge billow, bag, and to E. bulge. See Bulge.]
- lightsome a.
- Having light; lighted; not dark or gloomy; bright.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Goblin Laugh 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, The Goblin Laugh, 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/the-goblin-laugh.html, id L24747.
Form and metre
The Goblin Laugh 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 ABBAACCA grindA · powerB · hourB · mindA · mankindA · brainsC · gainsC · unwindA
- 2 ABBA-B billowA · playB · holidayB · pillowA · willow · wayB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When I behold how men and women grind | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| And grovel for some place of pomp or power, | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| To shine and circle through a crumbling hour, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘/ |
| Forgetting the large mansions of the mind, | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| That are the rest and shelter of mankind; | 10 | ·····/˘·// |
| And when I see them come with wearied brains | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Pallid and powerless to enjoy their gains, | 10 | /˘·/˘·˘/·· |
| I seem to hear a goblin laugh unwind. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| And then a memory sends upon its billow | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Thoughts of a singer wise enough to play, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Who took life as a lightsome holiday: | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Oft have I seen him make his arm a pillow, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Drink from his hand, and with a pipe of willow | 11 | ·········/· |
| Blow a wild music down a woodland way. | 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.