With Tears They Buried You To-day
With tears they buried you to-day,But well I knew no turf could holdYour gladness long beneath the mould,Or cramp your laughter in the clay;I smiled while others wept for youBecause I knew.
And now you sit with me to-nightHere in our old, accustomed place;Tender and mirthful is your face,Your eyes with starry joy are bright—Oh, you are merry as a songFor love is strong!
They think of you as lying thereDown in the churchyard grim and old;They think of you as mute and cold,A wan, white thing that once was fair,With dim, sealed eyes that never mayLook on the day.
But love cannot be coffined soIn clod and darkness; it must riseAnd seek its own in radiant guise,With immortality aglow,Making of death's triumphant stingA little thing.
Ay, we shall laugh at those who deemOur hearts are sundered! Listen, sweet,The tripping of the wind's swift feetAlong the by-ways of our dream,And hark the whisper of the roseWilding that blows.
Oh, still you love those simple things,And still you love them more with me;The grave has won no victory;It could not clasp your shining wings,It could not keep you from my side,Dear and my bride!
Words in this poem
- 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]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- churchyard n.
- The ground adjoining a church, in which the dead are buried; a cemetery.
- clod n.
- A lump or mass, especially of earth, turf, or clay. [OE. clodde, latter form of clot. See Clot.]
- aglow adv.
- In a glow; glowing; as, cheeks aglow; the landscape all aglow. [Pref. a- + glow.]
- 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,]
- deem v. t.
- To decide; to judge; to sentence; to condemn. [OE. demen to judge, condemn, AS. d, fr. d doom; akin to OFries. d, OS. ad, D. doemen, OHG. tuommen, Icel. dæma, Sw. dömma, Dan. dömme, Goth. d. See Doom, n., an]
- wilding a.
- Not tame, domesticated, or cultivated; wild.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
With Tears They Buried You To-day 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, With Tears They Buried You To-day, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/with-tears-they-buried-you-to-day.html, id L29439.
Form and metre
With Tears They Buried You To-day is 36 lines in 6 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBACC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 ABBACC dayA · holdB · mouldB · clayA · youC · knewC
- 2 ABBACC nightA · placeB · faceB · brightA · songC · strongC
- 3 ABBACC thereA · oldB · coldB · fairA · mayC · dayC
- 4 ABBACC soA · riseB · guiseB · aglowA · stingC · thingC
- 5 ABBACC deemA · sweetB · feetB · dreamA · roseC · blowsC
- 6 ABBACC thingsA · meB · victoryB · wingsA · sideC · brideC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| With tears they buried you to-day, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But well I knew no turf could hold | 8 | ········ |
| Your gladness long beneath the mould, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Or cramp your laughter in the clay; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I smiled while others wept for you | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Because I knew. | 4 | ···· |
| And now you sit with me to-night | 8 | ········ |
| Here in our old, accustomed place; | 8 | ··/·˘/˘· |
| Tender and mirthful is your face, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Your eyes with starry joy are bright— | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Oh, you are merry as a song | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For love is strong! | 4 | ···· |
| They think of you as lying there | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Down in the churchyard grim and old; | 8 | ···/···· |
| They think of you as mute and cold, | 8 | ········ |
| A wan, white thing that once was fair, | 8 | ········ |
| With dim, sealed eyes that never may | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Look on the day. | 4 | ···· |
| But love cannot be coffined so | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| In clod and darkness; it must rise | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And seek its own in radiant guise, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With immortality aglow, | 8 | ··˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Making of death's triumphant sting | 8 | /˘··˘/˘· |
| A little thing. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Ay, we shall laugh at those who deem | 8 | ········ |
| Our hearts are sundered! Listen, sweet, | 8 | /··/˘/˘· |
| The tripping of the wind's swift feet | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Along the by-ways of our dream, | 8 | ˘/····/· |
| And hark the whisper of the rose | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Wilding that blows. | 4 | /˘·· |
| Oh, still you love those simple things, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And still you love them more with me; | 8 | ········ |
| The grave has won no victory; | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| It could not clasp your shining wings, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| It could not keep you from my side, | 8 | ········ |
| Dear and my bride! | 4 | ···· |
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