Mourners
These layers of piled-up skulls,These layers of gleaming horror—stark horror!Ah me! Through my thin hands they touch my eyes.
Everywhere, everywhere is a pregnant birth,And here in death’s land is a pregnant birth.Your own crying is less mortalThan the amazing soul in your body.Your own crying yon parrot takes upAnd from your empty skull cries it afterwards.
Thou whose dark activities unenchantedDays from gyrating days, suspending themTo thrust them far from sight, from the gyrating daysWhich have gone widening on and left us here,Cast derelicts lost for ever.
When aged flesh looks down on tender brood;For he knows between his thin ribs’ wallsThe giant universe, the interminablePanorama—synods, myths and creeds,He knows his dust is fire and seed.
Words in this poem
- piled a.
- Having a pile or point; pointed. [From 2d Pile.]
- stark adv.
- Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind.
- amazing a.
- Causing amazement; very wonderful; as, amazing grace.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Mourners is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Isaac Rosenberg, Project Gutenberg ebook #66889; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Isaac Rosenberg, Mourners, in Poems (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66889, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rosenberg-poems/mourners.html, id L02507.
Form and metre
Mourners is 19 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%). 81% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.5 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 37% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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.
- 2 AA---- birthA · birthA · mortal · body · up · afterwards
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 |
|---|---|---|
| These layers of piled-up skulls, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| These layers of gleaming horror—stark horror! | 11 | ·/˘·/˘/˘·/˘ |
| Ah me! Through my thin hands they touch my eyes. | 10 | ·········· |
| Everywhere, everywhere is a pregnant birth, | 11 | /˘·/˘···/˘· |
| And here in death’s land is a pregnant birth. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Your own crying is less mortal | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Than the amazing soul in your body. | 10 | ··˘/˘···/˘ |
| Your own crying yon parrot takes up | 9 | ··/˘·/˘·· |
| And from your empty skull cries it afterwards. | 10 | ···/˘···/˘ |
| Thou whose dark activities unenchanted | 10 | ···˘/˘···· |
| Days from gyrating days, suspending them | 10 | ··/·˘·˘/˘· |
| To thrust them far from sight, from the gyrating days | 12 | ········/·˘· |
| Which have gone widening on and left us here, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Cast derelicts lost for ever. | 7 | ·/˘···/ |
| When aged flesh looks down on tender brood; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| For he knows between his thin ribs’ walls | 9 | ········· |
| The giant universe, the interminable | 10 | ·/˘/˘··˘/˘ |
| Panorama—synods, myths and creeds, | 9 | ·˘/˘/˘··· |
| He knows his dust is fire and seed. | 8 | ·····/·· |
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.