The Narrow Door
The narrow door, the narrow doorOn the three steps of which the café children playMostly at shop with pebbles from the shore,It is always shut this narrow doorBut open for a little while to-day.
And round it, each with pebbles in his hand,A silenced crowd the café children standTo see the long box jerking down the bendOf twisted stair; then set on end,Quite filling up the narrow doorTill it comes out and does not go in any more.
Along the quay you see it wind,The slow black line. Someone pulls up the blindOf the small window just above the narrow door--“Tiens! que veux-tu acheter?” Rénée cries,“Mais, pour quat’sous, des oignons,” Jean repliesAnd one pays down with pebbles from the shore.
Words in this poem
- quay n.
- A mole, bank, or wharf, formed toward the sea, or at the side of a harbor, river, or other navigable water, for convenience in loading and unloading vessels. [F. quai. See Key quay.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Narrow Door is in the public domain. This text is taken from The farmer's bride, Project Gutenberg ebook #71305; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charlotte Mew, The Narrow Door, in The Farmer's Bride (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #71305, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mew-farmers-bride/the-narrow-door.html, id L02456.
Form and metre
The Narrow Door is 17 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 59% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.7 syllables. 47% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 ABAAB doorA · playB · shoreA · doorA · dayB
- 2 AABBCC handA · standA · bendB · endB · doorC · moreC
- 3 AABCCB windA · blindA · doorB · criesC · repliesC · shoreB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The narrow door, the narrow door | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| On the three steps of which the café children play | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Mostly at shop with pebbles from the shore, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| It is always shut this narrow door | 9 | ··/···/˘· |
| But open for a little while to-day. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And round it, each with pebbles in his hand, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A silenced crowd the café children stand | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| To see the long box jerking down the bend | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of twisted stair; then set on end, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Quite filling up the narrow door | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Till it comes out and does not go in any more. | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| Along the quay you see it wind, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| The slow black line. Someone pulls up the blind | 10 | ····/····· |
| Of the small window just above the narrow door-- | 12 | ···/˘····/˘· |
| “Tiens! que veux-tu acheter?” Rénée cries, | 10 | ·········· |
| “Mais, pour quat’sous, des oignons,” Jean replies | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And one pays down with pebbles from the shore. | 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.