The Shroud
Death, I say, my heart is bowedUnto thine,--O mother!This red gown will make a shroudGood as any other!
(I, that would not wait to wearMy own bridal things,In a dress dark as my hairMade my answerings.
I, to-night, that till he cameCould not, could not wait,In a gown as bright as flameHeld for them the gate.)
Death, I say, my heart is bowedUnto thine,--O mother!This red gown will make a shroudGood as any other!
About this text
The Shroud is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59167; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edna St. Vincent Millay, The Shroud, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59167, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/millay-poems/the-shroud.html, id L24337.
Form and metre
The Shroud is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABAB bowedA · motherB · shroudA · otherB
- 2 ABAB wearA · thingsB · hairA · answeringsB
- 3 ABAB cameA · waitB · flameA · gateB
- 4 ABAB bowedA · motherB · shroudA · otherB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Death, I say, my heart is bowed | 7 | ······· |
| Unto thine,--O mother! | 6 | ····/˘ |
| This red gown will make a shroud | 7 | ······· |
| Good as any other! | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| (I, that would not wait to wear | 7 | ······· |
| My own bridal things, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| In a dress dark as my hair | 7 | ······· |
| Made my answerings. | 5 | ··/˘˘ |
| I, to-night, that till he came | 7 | ······· |
| Could not, could not wait, | 5 | ····· |
| In a gown as bright as flame | 7 | ······· |
| Held for them the gate.) | 5 | ····· |
| Death, I say, my heart is bowed | 7 | ······· |
| Unto thine,--O mother! | 6 | ····/˘ |
| This red gown will make a shroud | 7 | ······· |
| Good as any other! | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
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.