Haunted in Old Japan
Music of the star-shine shimmering o'er the seaMirror me no longer in the dusk of memory:Dim and white the rose-leaves drift along the shore.Wind among the roses, blow no more!
All along the purple creek, lit with silver foam,Silent, silent voices, cry no more of home!Soft beyond the cherry-trees, o'er the dim lagoon,Dawns the crimson lantern of the large low moon.
We that loved in April, we that turned awayLaughing ere the wood-dove crooned across the May,Watch the withered rose-leaves drift along the shore.Wind among the roses, blow no more!
We the Sons of Reason, we that chose to brideKnowledge, and rejected the Dream that we denied,We that chose the Wisdom that triumphs for an hour,We that let the young love perish like a flower....
We that hurt the kind heart, we that went astray,We that in the darkness idly dreamed of day....... Ah! The dreary rose-leaves drift along the shore.Wind among the roses, blow no more!
Lonely starry faces, wonderful and white,Yearning with a cry across the dim sweet night,All our dreams are blown a-drift as flowers before a fan,All our hearts are haunted in the heart of old Japan.
Haunted, haunted, haunted--we that mocked and sinnedHear the vanished voices wailing down the wind,Watch the ruined rose-leaves drift along the shore.Wind among the roses, blow no more!
All along the purple creek, lit with silver foam,Sobbing, sobbing voices, cry no more of home!Soft beyond the cherry-trees, o'er the dim lagoon,Dawns the crimson lantern of the large low moon.
Words in this poem
- shimmering n.
- A gleam or glimmering.
- lagoon n.
- A shallow sound, channel, pond, or lake, especially one into which the sea flows; as, the lagoons of Venice. [It. or Sp. laguna, L. lacuna ditch, pool, pond,lacus lake. See Lake, and cf. Lacuna.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- sobbing n.
- A series of short, convulsive inspirations, the glottis being suddenly closed so that little or no air enters into the lungs.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Haunted in Old Japan is in the public domain. This text is taken from Collected Poems: Volume One, Project Gutenberg ebook #30501; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Noyes, Haunted in Old Japan, in Collected Poems, Volume One (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #30501, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/noyes-collected/haunted-in-old-japan.html, id L21397.
Form and metre
Haunted in Old Japan is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 7 of its 8 stanzas. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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 --AA sea · memory · shoreA · moreA
- 2 AABB foamA · homeA · lagoonB · moonB
- 3 AABB awayA · mayA · shoreB · moreB
- 4 AABB brideA · deniedA · hourB · flowerB
- 5 AABB astrayA · dayA · shoreB · moreB
- 6 AABB whiteA · nightA · fanB · japanB
- 7 AABB sinnedA · windA · shoreB · moreB
- 8 AABB foamA · homeA · lagoonB · moonB
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Music of the star-shine shimmering o'er the sea | 11 | /˘····/˘··· |
| Mirror me no longer in the dusk of memory: | 12 | /˘··/˘····/˘ |
| Dim and white the rose-leaves drift along the shore. | 11 | ·······˘/·· |
| Wind among the roses, blow no more! | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| All along the purple creek, lit with silver foam, | 12 | ·˘/·/˘···/˘· |
| Silent, silent voices, cry no more of home! | 11 | /˘/˘/˘····· |
| Soft beyond the cherry-trees, o'er the dim lagoon, | 12 | ····/˘····˘/ |
| Dawns the crimson lantern of the large low moon. | 11 | ··/˘/˘····· |
| We that loved in April, we that turned away | 11 | ····/˘···˘/ |
| Laughing ere the wood-dove crooned across the May, | 11 | /˘·····˘/·· |
| Watch the withered rose-leaves drift along the shore. | 11 | ··/˘···˘/·· |
| Wind among the roses, blow no more! | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| We the Sons of Reason, we that chose to bride | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Knowledge, and rejected the Dream that we denied, | 12 | /˘·˘/˘····˘/ |
| We that chose the Wisdom that triumphs for an hour, | 12 | ····/˘·/˘··/ |
| We that let the young love perish like a flower.... | 11 | ······/˘··/ |
| We that hurt the kind heart, we that went astray, | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| We that in the darkness idly dreamed of day.... | 11 | ····/˘/˘··· |
| ... Ah! The dreary rose-leaves drift along the shore. | 11 | ··/˘···˘/·· |
| Wind among the roses, blow no more! | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Lonely starry faces, wonderful and white, | 10 | /˘/˘/˘/˘·· |
| Yearning with a cry across the dim sweet night, | 11 | /˘···˘/···· |
| All our dreams are blown a-drift as flowers before a fan, | 13 | ·/······/···· |
| All our hearts are haunted in the heart of old Japan. | 13 | ·/··/˘·····˘/ |
| Haunted, haunted, haunted--we that mocked and sinned | 11 | /˘/˘/˘····· |
| Hear the vanished voices wailing down the wind, | 11 | ··/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Watch the ruined rose-leaves drift along the shore. | 11 | ··/˘···˘/·· |
| Wind among the roses, blow no more! | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| All along the purple creek, lit with silver foam, | 12 | ·˘/·/˘···/˘· |
| Sobbing, sobbing voices, cry no more of home! | 11 | /˘/˘/˘····· |
| Soft beyond the cherry-trees, o'er the dim lagoon, | 12 | ····/˘····˘/ |
| Dawns the crimson lantern of the large low moon. | 11 | ··/˘/˘····· |
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.