Shut Out
The door was shut. I looked betweenIts iron bars; and saw it lie,My garden, mine, beneath the sky,Pied with all flowers bedewed and green:
From bough to bough the song-birds crossed,From flower to flower the moths and bees;With all its nests and stately treesIt had been mine, and it was lost.
A shadowless spirit kept the gate,Blank and unchanging like the grave.I peering through said: 'Let me haveSome buds to cheer my outcast state.'
He answered not. 'Or give me, then,But one small twig from shrub or tree;And bid my home remember meUntil I come to it again.'
The spirit was silent; but he tookMortar and stone to build a wall;He left no loophole great or smallThrough which my straining eyes might look:
So now I sit here quite aloneBlinded with tears; nor grieve for that,For nought is left worth looking atSince my delightful land is gone.
A violet bed is budding near,Wherein a lark has made her nest:And good they are, but not the best;And dear they are, but not so dear.
Words in this poem
- shadowless a.
- Having no shadow.
- outcast a.
- Cast out; degraded. [Cf. Sw. utkasta to cast out.]
- loophole n.
- A small opening, as in the walls of fortification, or in the bulkhead of a ship, through which small arms or other weapons may be discharged at an enemy.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Shut Out is in the public domain. This text is taken from Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #16950; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Christina Rossetti, Shut Out, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/shut-out.html, id L04267.
Form and metre
Shut Out is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 6 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABBA betweenA · lieB · skyB · greenA
- 2 ABBA crossedA · beesB · treesB · lostA
- 3 ABBA gateA · graveB · haveB · stateA
- 4 ABBA thenA · treeB · meB · againA
- 5 ABBA tookA · wallB · smallB · lookA
- 6 -AA- alone · thatA · atA · gone
- 7 ABBA nearA · nestB · bestB · dearA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The door was shut. I looked between | 8 | ········ |
| Its iron bars; and saw it lie, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| My garden, mine, beneath the sky, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Pied with all flowers bedewed and green: | 8 | ···/···· |
| From bough to bough the song-birds crossed, | 8 | ········ |
| From flower to flower the moths and bees; | 8 | ·/·/···· |
| With all its nests and stately trees | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| It had been mine, and it was lost. | 8 | ········ |
| A shadowless spirit kept the gate, | 8 | ·/˘˘/··· |
| Blank and unchanging like the grave. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| I peering through said: 'Let me have | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Some buds to cheer my outcast state.' | 8 | ·····/·· |
| He answered not. 'Or give me, then, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But one small twig from shrub or tree; | 8 | ········ |
| And bid my home remember me | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Until I come to it again.' | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The spirit was silent; but he took | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| Mortar and stone to build a wall; | 8 | /˘······ |
| He left no loophole great or small | 8 | ···/···· |
| Through which my straining eyes might look: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| So now I sit here quite alone | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Blinded with tears; nor grieve for that, | 8 | /˘······ |
| For nought is left worth looking at | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Since my delightful land is gone. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| A violet bed is budding near, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Wherein a lark has made her nest: | 8 | ········ |
| And good they are, but not the best; | 8 | ········ |
| And dear they are, but not so dear. | 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.