The Mound by the Lake
The grass shall never forget this grave.When homeward footing it in the sunAfter the weary ride by rail,The stripling soldiers passed her door,Wounded perchance, or wan and pale,She left her household work undone--Duly the wayside table spread,With evergreens shaded, to regaleEach travel-spent and grateful one.So warm her heart--childless--unwed,Who like a mother comforted.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- homeward a.
- Being in the direction of home; as, the homeward way.
- stripling n.
- A youth in the state of adolescence, or just passing from boyhood to manhood; a lad. [Dim. of strip; as if a small strip from the main stock or steam.]
- undone a.
- Not done or performed; neglected. [Pref. un- not + done.]
- wayside n.
- The side of the way; the edge or border of a road or path.
- regale n.
- A prerogative of royalty. Johnson. [LL. regale, pl. regalia, fr. L. regalis: cf. F. régale. See Regal.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Mound by the Lake is in the public domain. This text is taken from Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War, Project Gutenberg ebook #12384; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Herman Melville, The Mound by the Lake, in Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12384, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/melville-battle-pieces/the-mound-by-the-lake.html, id L00926.
Form and metre
The Mound by the Lake is 11 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 -AB-BAC-ACC grave · sunA · railB · door · paleB · undoneA · spreadC · regale · oneA · unwedC · comfortedC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The grass shall never forget this grave. | 8 | ···/˘/·· |
| When homeward footing it in the sun | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| After the weary ride by rail, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The stripling soldiers passed her door, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Wounded perchance, or wan and pale, | 8 | /˘˘/···· |
| She left her household work undone-- | 8 | ···/··˘/ |
| Duly the wayside table spread, | 8 | /˘·/·/˘· |
| With evergreens shaded, to regale | 10 | ·/˘·/˘·˘/˘ |
| Each travel-spent and grateful one. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| So warm her heart--childless--unwed, | 8 | ····/˘˘/ |
| Who like a mother comforted. | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
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.