The Death Rooms
My soul has many an old decaying roomHung with the ragged arras of the past,Where startled faces flicker in the gloom,And horrid whispers set the cheek aghast.
Those dropping rooms are haunted by a death,A something like a worm gnawing a brain,That bids me heed what bitter lesson saithThe blind wind beating on the window-pane.
None dwells in those old rooms: none ever can--I pass them through at night with hidden head;Lock'd rotting rooms her eyes must never scan,Floors that her blessed feet must never tread.
Haunted old rooms: rooms she must never know,Where death-ticks knock and mouldering panels glow.
Words in this poem
- arras n.
- Tapestry; a rich figured fabric; especially, a screen or hangings of heavy cloth with interwoven figures. [From Arras the capital of Artois, in the French Netherlands.]
- flicker v. i.
- To flutter; to flap the wings without flying. [OE. flikeren, flekeren, to flutter, AS. flicerian, flicorian, cf. D. flikkeren to sparkle. Flacker.]
- horrid a.
- Rough; rugged; bristling. [L. horridus. See Horror, and cf. Ordure.]
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
- scan v. t.
- To mount by steps; to go through with step by step. [L. scandere, scansum, to climb, to scan, akin to Skr. skand to spring, leap: cf. F. scander. Cf. Ascend, Descend, Scale a ladder.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Death Rooms is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Story of a Round-House, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #40717; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Masefield, The Death Rooms, in The Story of a Round-House, and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #40717, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masefield-round-house/the-death-rooms.html, id L25021.
Form and metre
The Death Rooms is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 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 ABAB roomA · pastB · gloomA · aghastB
- 2 ABAB deathA · brainB · saithA · paneB
- 3 ABAB canA · headB · scanA · treadB
- 4 AA knowA · glowA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My soul has many an old decaying room | 10 | ···/··˘/˘· |
| Hung with the ragged arras of the past, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Where startled faces flicker in the gloom, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| And horrid whispers set the cheek aghast. | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Those dropping rooms are haunted by a death, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| A something like a worm gnawing a brain, | 10 | ·/˘···/˘·· |
| That bids me heed what bitter lesson saith | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| The blind wind beating on the window-pane. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| None dwells in those old rooms: none ever can-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I pass them through at night with hidden head; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Lock'd rotting rooms her eyes must never scan, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Floors that her blessed feet must never tread. | 10 | ····˘··/˘· |
| Haunted old rooms: rooms she must never know, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Where death-ticks knock and mouldering panels glow. | 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.