A Song at Parting
The tick of the blood is settling slow, my heart will soon be still,And ripe and ready am I for rest in the grave atop the hill;So gather me up and lay me down, for ready and ripe am I,For the weary vigil with sightless eyes that may not see the sky.
I have lived my life: I have spilt the wine that God the Maker gave,So carry me up the lonely hill and lay me in the grave,And cover me in with cleanly mould and old and lichened stones,In a place where ever the cry of the wind shall thrill my sleepy bones.
Gather me up and lay me down with an old song and a prayer,Cover me in with wholesome earth, and weep and leave me there;And get you gone with a kindly thought and an old tune and a sigh,And leave me alone, asleep, at rest, for ready and ripe am I.
Words in this poem
- settling n.
- The act of one who, or that which, settles; the act of establishing one's self, of colonizing, subsiding, adjusting, etc.
- atop adv.
- On or at the top.
- vigil n.
- Abstinence from sleep, whether at a time when sleep is customary or not; the act of keeping awake, or the state of being awake, or the state of being awake; sleeplessness; wakefulness; watch. [OE. vigile, L. vigilia, from vigil awake, watchful, probably akin to E. wake: cf. F. vigile. See Wake, v. i., and cf. Reveille, Surveillance, Vedette, Vegetable]
- sightless a.
- Wanting sight; without sight; blind.
- cleanly a.
- Habitually clean; pure; innocent. [From Clean.]
- mould n.
- Crumbling, soft, friable earth; esp., earth containing the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil. [OE. molde, AS. molde; akin to D. mul, G. mull, mulm, OHG. molt, molta, Icel. mold, Dan. muld, Sw. mull, Goth. mulda, and E. meal flour. See Meal, and cf. Mole a]
- lichened a.
- Belonging to, or covered with, lichens.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Song at Parting is in the public domain. This text is taken from Salt-Water Ballads, Project Gutenberg ebook #52761; 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, A Song at Parting, in Salt-Water Ballads (1902), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #52761, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masefield-salt-water/a-song-at-parting.html, id L12691.
Form and metre
A Song at Parting is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic octameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%). 76% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 15.7 syllables.
See other poems in iambic octameter.
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 AABB stillA · hillA · iB · skyB
- 2 AABB gaveA · graveA · stonesB · bonesB
- 3 AABB prayerA · thereA · sighB · iB
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 octameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The tick of the blood is settling slow, my heart will soon be still, | 16 | ······/˘˘······· |
| And ripe and ready am I for rest in the grave atop the hill; | 16 | ···/˘·······˘/·· |
| So gather me up and lay me down, for ready and ripe am I, | 16 | ·/˘·······/˘···· |
| For the weary vigil with sightless eyes that may not see the sky. | 16 | ··/˘/˘·/˘······· |
| I have lived my life: I have spilt the wine that God the Maker gave, | 16 | ·············/˘· |
| So carry me up the lonely hill and lay me in the grave, | 15 | ·/˘···/˘······· |
| And cover me in with cleanly mould and old and lichened stones, | 16 | ·/˘···/˘····/˘˘· |
| In a place where ever the cry of the wind shall thrill my sleepy bones. | 16 | ····/········/˘· |
| Gather me up and lay me down with an old song and a prayer, | 15 | /˘············· |
| Cover me in with wholesome earth, and weep and leave me there; | 14 | /˘···/˘······· |
| And get you gone with a kindly thought and an old tune and a sigh, | 16 | ······/˘········ |
| And leave me alone, asleep, at rest, for ready and ripe am I. | 16 | ···˘/˘/···/˘···· |
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.