The Wife of Usher’s Well

common measure · 52 lines · from Poems

There lived a wife at Usher’s well,And a wealthy wife was she;She had three stout and stalwart sons,And sent them o’er the sea.

They hadna been a week from her,A week but barely ane,When word came to the carline wifeThat her three sons were gane.

They hadna been a week from her,A week but barely three,When word came to the carline wifeThat her sons she’d never see.

‘I wish the wind may never cease.Nor fashes in the flood,Till my three sons come hame to me,In earthly flesh and blood!’

It fell about the Martinmas,When nights are lang and mirk,The carline wife’s three sons came hame,And their hats were o’ the birk.

It neither grew in syke nor ditch,Nor yet in ony sheugh;But at the gates o’ ParadiseThat birk grew fair eneugh.

‘Blow up the fire, my maidens!Bring water from the well!For a’ my house shall feast this night,Since my three sons are well.’

And she has made to them a bed,She’s made it large and wide;And she’s ta’en her mantle her about,Sat down at the bedside.

Up then crew the red, red cock,And up and crew the gray;The eldest to the youngest said.‘’Tis time we were away.’

The cock he hadna craw’d but once,And clapp’d his wings at a’,When the youngest to the eldest said,‘Brother, we must awa’.

‘The cock doth craw, the day doth daw,The channerin’ worm doth chide;Gin we be miss’d out o’ our place,A sair pain we maun bide.’

‘Lie still, lie still but a little wee while,Lie still but if we may;Gin my mother should miss us when she wakes,She’ll go mad ere it be day.’

‘Fare ye weel, my mother dear!Fareweel to barn and byre!And fare ye weel, the bonny lassThat kindles my mother’s fire!’

Words in this poem

stalwart a.: Brave; bold; strong; redoubted; daring; vehement; violent. [OE. stalworth, AS. stælwyrth serviceable, probably originally, good at stealing, or worth stealing or taking, and afterwards extended to other causes of estimat]
carline n.: A silver coin once current in some parts of Italy, worth about seven cents. Simmonds. [F. carin; cf. It. carlino; -- so called from Carlo (Charles) VI. of Naples.]
gane v. i.: To yawn; to gape. [See Yawn.]
mirk a.: Dark; gloomy; murky. Spenser. Mrs. Browning. [See Murky.]
birk n.: A small European minnow (Leuciscus phoxinus).
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,]
bedside n.: The side of a bed.
bide v. i.: To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
weel: A kind of trap or snare for fish, made of twigs. Carew. [Prov. E. weel, weal, a wicker basket to catch eels; prob. akin to willow, and so called as made of willow twigs.]
byre n.: A cow house. [N. of Eng.& Scot.] [Cf, Icel. bür pantry, Sw. bur cage,Dan. buur, E.bower.]
bonny a.: Handsome; beautiful; pretty; attractively lively and graceful. [OE. boni, prob. fr. F. bon, fem. bonne, good, fr. L. bonus good. See Bounty, and cf. Bonus, Boon.]
lass n.: A youth woman; a girl; a sweetheart. [OE. lasse; prob. of Celtic origin; cf. W. llodes girl, fem. of llawd lad. (Lad a youth.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

The Wife of Usher’s Well is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Anonymous, The Wife of Usher’s Well, in Poems, text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-anonymous-english/the-wife-of-ushers-well.html, id L15933.

Form and metre

The Wife of Usher’s Well is 52 lines in 13 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.3 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.

See other poems in common measure.

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 -A-A well · she^A · sons · sea^A
2 -A-A her · ane^A · wife · gane^A
3 -A-A her · three^A · wife · see^A
4 -A-A cease · flood^A · me · blood^A
5 -A-A martinmas · mirk^A · hame · birk^A
6 -A-A ditch · sheugh^A · paradise · eneugh^A
7 -A-A maidens · well^A · night · well^A
8 -A-A bed · wide^A · about · bedside^A
9 -A-A cock · gray^A · said · away^A
11 -A-A daw · chide^A · place · bide^A
12 -A-A while · may^A · wakes · day^A
13 -A-A dear · byre^A · lass · fire^A

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 common measure. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
There lived a wife at Usher’s well,	8	·····/˘·
And a wealthy wife was she;	7	··/˘···
She had three stout and stalwart sons,	8	·····/˘·
And sent them o’er the sea.	6	······
They hadna been a week from her,	8	········
A week but barely ane,	6	···/˘·
When word came to the carline wife	8	········
That her three sons were gane.	6	······
They hadna been a week from her,	8	········
A week but barely three,	6	···/˘·
When word came to the carline wife	8	········
That her sons she’d never see.	7	····/˘·
‘I wish the wind may never cease.	8	·····/˘·
Nor fashes in the flood,	6	······
Till my three sons come hame to me,	8	········
In earthly flesh and blood!’	6	·/˘···
It fell about the Martinmas,	8	·····/˘˘
When nights are lang and mirk,	6	······
The carline wife’s three sons came hame,	8	········
And their hats were o’ the birk.	7	·······
It neither grew in syke nor ditch,	8	·/˘·····
Nor yet in ony sheugh;	6	···/˘·
But at the gates o’ Paradise	8	·····/˘·
That birk grew fair eneugh.	6	······
‘Blow up the fire, my maidens!	8	···/˘·/˘
Bring water from the well!	6	·/˘···
For a’ my house shall feast this night,	8	········
Since my three sons are well.’	6	······
And she has made to them a bed,	8	········
She’s made it large and wide;	6	······
And she’s ta’en her mantle her about,	9	····/˘···
Sat down at the bedside.	6	····/·
Up then crew the red, red cock,	7	·······
And up and crew the gray;	6	······
The eldest to the youngest said.	8	·/˘··/˘·
‘’Tis time we were away.’	6	····˘/
The cock he hadna craw’d but once,	8	········
And clapp’d his wings at a’,	6	······
When the youngest to the eldest said,	9	··/˘··/˘·
‘Brother, we must awa’.	6	/˘····
‘The cock doth craw, the day doth daw,	8	········
The channerin’ worm doth chide;	7	·······
Gin we be miss’d out o’ our place,	9	······/˘·
A sair pain we maun bide.’	6	······
‘Lie still, lie still but a little wee while,	10	······/˘··
Lie still but if we may;	6	······
Gin my mother should miss us when she wakes,	10	··/˘······
She’ll go mad ere it be day.’	7	·······
‘Fare ye weel, my mother dear!	7	····/˘·
Fareweel to barn and byre!	8	······/˘
And fare ye weel, the bonny lass	8	·····/˘·
That kindles my mother’s fire!’	8	·/˘·/˘/˘

Notes from the edition 1

Quiller-Couch's glosses on the hard words, from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250–1900, chosen and edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch (Oxford, 1900; Project Gutenberg #66619)

Stanza 1 fashes] troubles. syke] marsh. sheugh] trench. _378._ channerin’] fretting.

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