A Dirge
Call for the robin-redbreast and the wren,Since o’er shady groves they hover,And with leaves and flowers do coverThe friendless bodies of unburied men.Call unto his funeral doleThe ant, the field-mouse, and the mole,To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm,And (when gay tombs are robb’d) sustain no harm;But keep the wolf far thence, that’s foe to men,For with his nails he’ll dig them up again.
Words in this poem
- hover n.
- A cover; a shelter; a protection. Carew. C. Kingsley. [Etymol. doubtful.]
- friendless a.
- Destitute of friends; forsaken. [AS. freóndleás.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Dirge 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: John Webster, A Dirge, in Poems (1630), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-john-webster/a-dirge.html, id L16031.
Form and metre
A Dirge is 10 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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--AA wrenA · hoverB · coverB · menA · doleC · moleC · warm · harm · menA · againA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Call for the robin-redbreast and the wren, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Since o’er shady groves they hover, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And with leaves and flowers do cover | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| The friendless bodies of unburied men. | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| Call unto his funeral dole | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole, | 8 | ········ |
| To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And (when gay tombs are robb’d) sustain no harm; | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| But keep the wolf far thence, that’s foe to men, | 10 | ·········· |
| For with his nails he’ll dig them up again. | 10 | ········˘/ |
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)
- _218._ dole] lamentation.
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.