Lines
When London was a little townLean by the river's marge,The poet paced it with a frown,He thought it very large.
He loved bright ship and pointing steepleAnd bridge with houses loadedAnd priests and many-coloured people...But ah, they were not woaded!
Not all the walls could shed the spellOf meres and marshes green,Nor any chaffering merchant tellThe beauty that had been:
The crying birds at fall of night,The fisher in his coracle,And, grim on Ludgate's windy height,An oak-tree and an oracle.
Sick for the past his hair he rentAnd dropt a tear in season;If he had cause for his lamentWe have much better reason.
For now the fields and paths he knewAre coffined all with bricks,The lucid silver stream he knewRuns slimy as the Styx;
North and south and east and west,Far as the eye can travel,Earth with a sombre web is drestThat nothing can unravel.
And we must wear as black a frown,Wail with as keen a woeThat London was a little townFive hundred years ago.
Yet even this place of steamy stir,This pit of belch and swallow,With chrism of gold and gossamerThe elements can hallow.
I have a room in Chancery Lane,High in a world of wires,Whence fall the roofs a ragged plainWooded with many spires.
There in the dawns of summer daysI stand, and there beholdA city veiled in rainbow hazeAnd spangled all with gold.
The breezes waft abroad the raysShot by the waking sun,A myriad chimneys softly blaze,A myriad shadows run.
Round the wide rim in radiant mistThe gentle suburbs quiver,And nearer lies the shining twistOf Thames, a holy river.
Left and right my vision drifts,By yonder towers I linger,Where Westminster's cathedral liftsIts belled Byzantine finger,
And here against my perched homeWhere hold wise converse dailyThe loftier and the lesser dome,St Paul's and the Old Bailey.
Words in this poem 17
- marge n.
- Border; margin; edge; verge. [F. marge. See Margin.]
- coloured a.
- Having color; tinged; dyed; painted; stained.
- woaded a.
- Colored or stained with woad.
- oracle v. i.
- To utter oracles.
- styx n.
- The principal river of the lower world, which had to be crossed in passing to the regions of the dead.
- sombre n.
- Gloom; obscurity; duskiness; somberness.
- steamy a.
- Consisting of, or resembling, steam; full of steam; vaporous; misty.
- belch v. t.
- To eject or throw up from the stomach with violence; to eruct. [OE. belken, AS. bealcan, akin to E. bellow. See Bellow, v. i.]
- chrism n.
- Olive oil mixed with balm and spices, consecrated by the bishop on Maundy Thursday, and used in the administration of baptism, confirmation, ordination, etc. [OE. crisme, from AS. crisma; also OE. creme, fr. OF. cresme, like the AS. word fr. LL. chrisma, fr. Gr. friare, fricare, to rub, Skr. gharsh, E. friable, fricti]
- gossamer n.
- A fine, filmy substance, like cobwebs, floating in the air, in calm, clear weather, especially in autumn. It is seen in stubble fields and on furze or low bushes, and is formed by small spiders. [OE. gossomer, gossummer, gosesomer, perh. for goose summer, from its downy appearance, or perh. for God's summer, cf. G. mariengarr gossamer, properly Mary's ya]
- hallow v. t.
- To make holy; to set apart for holy or religious use; to consecrate; to treat or keep as sacred; to reverence. [OE. halowen, halwien, halgien, AS. halgian, fr. halig holy. See Holy.]
- veiled a.
- Covered by, or as by, a veil; hidden.
- waft v. t.
- To give notice to by waving something; to wave the hand to; to beckon. [Prob. originally imp. & p. p. of wave, v. t. See Wave to waver.]
- myriad n.
- The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. [Gr. myriade.]
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- belled a.
- Hung with a bell or bells.
- byzantine n.
- A gold coin, so called from being coined at Byzantium. See Bezant. [OE. besant, besaunt, F. besant, fr. LL. Byzantius, Byzantinus, fr. Byzantium.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lines is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems - First Series, Project Gutenberg ebook #37860; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Collings Squire, Lines, in Poems: First Series (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37860, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/squire-poems/lines.html, id L23155.
Form and metre
Lines is 60 lines in 15 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 13 of its 15 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB townA · margeB · frownA · largeB
- 2 ABAB steepleA · loadedB · peopleA · woadedB
- 3 A-A- spellA · green · tellA · been
- 4 ABAB nightA · coracleB · heightA · oracleB
- 5 ABAB rentA · seasonB · lamentA · reasonB
- 6 ABAB knewA · bricksB · knewA · styxB
- 7 ABAB westA · travelB · drestA · unravelB
- 8 ABAB frownA · woeB · townA · agoB
- 10 ABAB laneA · wiresB · plainA · spiresB
- 11 ABAB daysA · beholdB · hazeA · goldB
- 12 ABAB raysA · sunB · blazeA · runB
- 13 ABAB mistA · quiverB · twistA · riverB
- 14 ABAB driftsA · lingerB · liftsA · fingerB
- 15 ABAB homeA · dailyB · domeA · baileyB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When London was a little town | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Lean by the river's marge, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The poet paced it with a frown, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| He thought it very large. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| He loved bright ship and pointing steeple | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| And bridge with houses loaded | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| And priests and many-coloured people... | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| But ah, they were not woaded! | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Not all the walls could shed the spell | 8 | ········ |
| Of meres and marshes green, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Nor any chaffering merchant tell | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| The beauty that had been: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The crying birds at fall of night, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The fisher in his coracle, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| And, grim on Ludgate's windy height, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| An oak-tree and an oracle. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Sick for the past his hair he rent | 8 | ········ |
| And dropt a tear in season; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| If he had cause for his lament | 8 | ······˘/ |
| We have much better reason. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| For now the fields and paths he knew | 8 | ········ |
| Are coffined all with bricks, | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| The lucid silver stream he knew | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Runs slimy as the Styx; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| North and south and east and west, | 7 | ······· |
| Far as the eye can travel, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Earth with a sombre web is drest | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That nothing can unravel. | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| And we must wear as black a frown, | 8 | ········ |
| Wail with as keen a woe | 6 | ······ |
| That London was a little town | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Five hundred years ago. | 7 | ·/˘˘·˘/ |
| Yet even this place of steamy stir, | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| This pit of belch and swallow, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| With chrism of gold and gossamer | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| The elements can hallow. | 7 | ·/˘˘·/˘ |
| I have a room in Chancery Lane, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| High in a world of wires, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Whence fall the roofs a ragged plain | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Wooded with many spires. | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| There in the dawns of summer days | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I stand, and there behold | 6 | ····˘/ |
| A city veiled in rainbow haze | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| And spangled all with gold. | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| The breezes waft abroad the rays | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Shot by the waking sun, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A myriad chimneys softly blaze, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| A myriad shadows run. | 7 | ·/˘˘/·· |
| Round the wide rim in radiant mist | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The gentle suburbs quiver, | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| And nearer lies the shining twist | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Of Thames, a holy river. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Left and right my vision drifts, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| By yonder towers I linger, | 8 | ·/˘/˘·/˘ |
| Where Westminster's cathedral lifts | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| Its belled Byzantine finger, | 8 | ··˘/˘·/˘ |
| And here against my perched home | 8 | ······˘· |
| Where hold wise converse daily | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| The loftier and the lesser dome, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| St Paul's and the Old Bailey. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
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.