The Tavern
Whenever I go by there nowadaysAnd look at the rank weeds and the strange grass,The torn blue curtains and the broken glass,I seem to be afraid of the old place;And something stiffens up and down my face,For all the world as if I saw the ghostOf old Ham Amory, the murdered host,With his dead eyes turned on me all aglaze.
The Tavern has a story, but no manCan tell us what it is. We only knowThat once long after midnight, years ago,A stranger galloped up from Tilbury Town,Who brushed, and scared, and all but overranThat skirt-crazed reprobate, John Evereldown.
Words in this poem
- nowadays adv.
- In these days; at the present time. [For now on (OE. an) days. See A-, 1.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- tilbury n.
- A kind of gig or two-wheeled carriage, without a top or cover. [Probably from Tilburyfort, in the Country of Essex, in England.]
- reprobate a.
- Not enduring proof or trial; not of standard purity or fineness; disallowed; rejected. [L. reprobatus, p. p. of reprobare to disapprove, condemn. See Reprieve, Reprove.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Tavern is in the public domain. This text is taken from Children of the Night, Project Gutenberg ebook #313; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Arlington Robinson, The Tavern, in The Children of the Night (1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #313, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/robinson-children-of-night/the-tavern.html, id L08014.
Form and metre
The Tavern is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 36% 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 ABBCCDDA nowadaysA · grassB · glassB · placeC · faceC · ghostD · hostD · aglazeA
- 2 ABBCAC manA · knowB · agoB · townC · overranA · evereldownC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Whenever I go by there nowadays | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| And look at the rank weeds and the strange grass, | 10 | ·········· |
| The torn blue curtains and the broken glass, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I seem to be afraid of the old place; | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| And something stiffens up and down my face, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| For all the world as if I saw the ghost | 10 | ·········· |
| Of old Ham Amory, the murdered host, | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| With his dead eyes turned on me all aglaze. | 10 | ·········· |
| The Tavern has a story, but no man | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Can tell us what it is. We only know | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That once long after midnight, years ago, | 10 | ·····/··˘/ |
| A stranger galloped up from Tilbury Town, | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/·˘· |
| Who brushed, and scared, and all but overran | 10 | ·······/˘/ |
| That skirt-crazed reprobate, John Evereldown. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
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.