Inclusiveness
The changing guests, each in a different mood,Sit at the roadside table and arise:And every life among them in likewiseIs a soul's board set daily with new food.What man has bent o'er his son's sleep, to broodHow that face shall watch his when cold it lies?--Or thought, as his own mother kissed his eyes,Of what her kiss was when his father wooed?
May not this ancient room thou sit'st in dwellIn separate living souls for joy or pain?Nay, all its corners may be painted plainWhere Heaven shows pictures of some life spent well;And may be stamped, a memory all in vain,Upon the sight of lidless eyes in Hell.
Words in this poem
- roadside n.
- Land adjoining a road or highway; the part of a road or highway that borders the traveled part. Also used ajectively.
- 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,]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- lidless a.
- Having no lid, or not covered with the lids, as the eyes; hence, sleepless; watchful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Inclusiveness is in the public domain. This text is taken from The House of Life, Project Gutenberg ebook #3692; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Inclusiveness, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/inclusiveness.html, id L20980.
Form and metre
Inclusiveness is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 ABBAABBA moodA · ariseB · likewiseB · foodA · broodA · liesB · eyesB · wooedA
- 2 ABBABA dwellA · painB · plainB · wellA · vainB · hellA
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 changing guests, each in a different mood, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Sit at the roadside table and arise: | 10 | ···/·/˘·˘/ |
| And every life among them in likewise | 10 | ·/˘·····/· |
| Is a soul's board set daily with new food. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| What man has bent o'er his son's sleep, to brood | 10 | ·········· |
| How that face shall watch his when cold it lies?-- | 10 | ·········· |
| Or thought, as his own mother kissed his eyes, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of what her kiss was when his father wooed? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| May not this ancient room thou sit'st in dwell | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| In separate living souls for joy or pain? | 11 | ·/˘˘/˘····· |
| Nay, all its corners may be painted plain | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Where Heaven shows pictures of some life spent well; | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| And may be stamped, a memory all in vain, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Upon the sight of lidless eyes in Hell. | 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.