The Old Man's Grave
Make it where the winds may sweepThrough the pine boughs soft and deep,And the murmur of the seaCome across the orient lea,And the falling raindrops singGently to his slumbering.
Make it where the meadows wideGreenly lie on every side,Harvest fields he reaped and trod,Westering slopes of clover sod,Orchard lands where bloom and blowTrees he planted long ago.
Make it where the starshine dimMay be always close to him,And the sunrise glory spreadLavishly around his bed.And the dewy grasses creepTenderly above his sleep.
Since these things to him were dearThrough full many a well-spent year,It is surely meet their graceShould be on his resting-place,And the murmur of the seaBe his dirge eternally.
Words in this poem
- greenly adv.
- With a green color; newly; freshly, immaturely.
- westering a.
- Passing to the west.
- starshine n.
- The light of the stars.
- lavishly adv.
- In a lavish manner.
- tenderly adv.
- In a tender manner; with tenderness; mildly; gently; softly; in a manner not to injure or give pain; with pity or affection; kindly.
- dirge n.
- A piece of music of a mournful character, to accompany funeral rites; a funeral hymn. [Contraction of Lat. dirige, direct thou (imperative of dirigere), the first word of a funeral hymn (Lat. transl. of Psalm v. 8) beginning, "Dirige, Domine, in c]
- eternally adv.
- In an eternal manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Old Man's Grave is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Watchman and Other Poems (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1917; Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart, 1916), Internet Archive; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: L. M. Montgomery, The Old Man's Grave, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/the-old-mans-grave.html, id L29449.
Form and metre
The Old Man's Grave is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCC. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 AABBCC sweepA · deepA · seaB · leaB · singC · slumberingC
- 2 AABBCC wideA · sideA · trodB · sodB · blowC · agoC
- 3 AABBCC dimA · himA · spreadB · bedB · creepC · sleepC
- 4 AABBCC dearA · yearA · graceB · placeB · seaC · eternallyC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Make it where the winds may sweep | 7 | ······· |
| Through the pine boughs soft and deep, | 7 | ······· |
| And the murmur of the sea | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Come across the orient lea, | 8 | ·˘/·/˘·· |
| And the falling raindrops sing | 7 | ··/˘/·· |
| Gently to his slumbering. | 7 | /˘··/˘˘ |
| Make it where the meadows wide | 7 | ····/·· |
| Greenly lie on every side, | 8 | /˘··/˘˘· |
| Harvest fields he reaped and trod, | 8 | /˘···˘·· |
| Westering slopes of clover sod, | 8 | /˘˘··/˘· |
| Orchard lands where bloom and blow | 7 | /˘····· |
| Trees he planted long ago. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Make it where the starshine dim | 7 | ····/˘· |
| May be always close to him, | 7 | ··/···· |
| And the sunrise glory spread | 7 | ··/·/˘· |
| Lavishly around his bed. | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| And the dewy grasses creep | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Tenderly above his sleep. | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| Since these things to him were dear | 7 | ······· |
| Through full many a well-spent year, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| It is surely meet their grace | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Should be on his resting-place, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And the murmur of the sea | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Be his dirge eternally. | 7 | ···˘/˘˘ |
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.