Sister Maude
Who told my mother of my shame,Who told my father of my dear?Oh who but Maude, my sister Maude,Who lurked to spy and peer.
Cold he lies, as cold as stone,With his clotted curls about his face:The comeliest corpse in all the worldAnd worthy of a queen's embrace.
You might have spared his soul, sister,Have spared my soul, your own soul too:Though I had not been born at all,He'd never have looked at you.
My father may sleep in Paradise,My mother at Heaven-gate:But sister Maude shall get no sleepEither early or late.
My father may wear a golden gown,My mother a crown may win;If my dear and I knocked at Heaven-gatePerhaps they'd let us in:But sister Maude, oh sister Maude,Bide you with death and sin.
Words in this poem
- corpse n.
- A human body in general, whether living or dead; -- sometimes contemptuosly. [OF. cors (sometimes written corps), F. corps, L. corpus; akin to AS. hrif womb. See Midriff, and cf. Corse, Corselet, Corps, Cuerpo.]
- 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,]
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sister Maude 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, Sister Maude, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/sister-maude.html, id L04272.
Form and metre
Sister Maude is 22 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% 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 -A-A shame · dearA · maude · peerA
- 2 -A-A stone · faceA · world · embraceA
- 3 -A-A sister · tooA · all · youA
- 4 -A-A paradise · gateA · sleep · lateA
- 5 AA-A-A gownA · winA · gate · inA · maude · sinA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Who told my mother of my shame, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Who told my father of my dear? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Oh who but Maude, my sister Maude, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Who lurked to spy and peer. | 7 | ··˘···· |
| Cold he lies, as cold as stone, | 7 | ······· |
| With his clotted curls about his face: | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| The comeliest corpse in all the world | 9 | ········· |
| And worthy of a queen's embrace. | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| You might have spared his soul, sister, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Have spared my soul, your own soul too: | 8 | ········ |
| Though I had not been born at all, | 8 | ········ |
| He'd never have looked at you. | 8 | ·/˘··˘·· |
| My father may sleep in Paradise, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| My mother at Heaven-gate: | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| But sister Maude shall get no sleep | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Either early or late. | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| My father may wear a golden gown, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| My mother a crown may win; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| If my dear and I knocked at Heaven-gate | 9 | ·······/· |
| Perhaps they'd let us in: | 6 | ˘/···· |
| But sister Maude, oh sister Maude, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Bide you with death and sin. | 6 | ······ |
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.