Ii—The Quickstep
The dirge is over, the good work is done,All as he would have had it, and we go;And we who leave him say we do not knowHow much is ended or how much begun.So men have said before of many a one;So men may say of us when Time shall throwSuch earth as may be needful to bestowOn you and me the covering hush we shun.Well hated, better loved, he played and lost,And left us; and we smile at his arrears;And who are we to know what it all cost,Or what we may have wrung from him, the buyer?The pageant of his failure-laden yearsTold ruin of high price. The place was higher.
Words in this poem
- dirge n.
- A piece of music of a mournful character, to accompany funeral rites; a funeral hymn. [Contraction of Lat. dirige, direct thou (imperative of dirigere), the first word of a funeral hymn (Lat. transl. of Psalm v. 8) beginning, "Dirige, Domine, in c]
- 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,]
- needful a.
- Full of need; in need or want; needy; distressing.
- pageant n.
- A theatrical exhibition; a spectacle. [OE. pagent, pagen, originally, a movable scaffold or stage, hence, what was exhibited on it, fr. LL. pagina, akin to pangere to fasten; cf. L. pagina page, leaf]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ii—The Quickstep is in the public domain. This text is taken from The town down the river, Project Gutenberg ebook #76699; 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, Ii—The Quickstep, in The Town Down the River (1910), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #76699, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/robinson-town-down-river/ii-the-quickstep.html, id L17187.
Form and metre
Ii—The Quickstep is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCEDE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 29% 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 ABBAABBACDCEDE doneA · goB · knowB · begunA · oneA · throwB · bestowB · shunA · lostC · arrearsD · costC · buyerE · yearsD · higherE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The dirge is over, the good work is done, | 9 | ········· |
| All as he would have had it, and we go; | 10 | ·········· |
| And we who leave him say we do not know | 10 | ·········· |
| How much is ended or how much begun. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| So men have said before of many a one; | 10 | ·······/·· |
| So men may say of us when Time shall throw | 10 | ·········· |
| Such earth as may be needful to bestow | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| On you and me the covering hush we shun. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Well hated, better loved, he played and lost, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And left us; and we smile at his arrears; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And who are we to know what it all cost, | 10 | ·········· |
| Or what we may have wrung from him, the buyer? | 10 | ·········/ |
| The pageant of his failure-laden years | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Told ruin of high price. The place was higher. | 9 | ·/······/ |
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.