Town
Mostly in a dull rotationWe bear our loads and eat and drink and sleep.Feeling no tears, knowing no meditation--Too tired to think, too clogged with earth to weep.
Dimly convinced, poor groping wretches,Like eyeless insects in a murky pondThat out and out this city stretches,Away, away, and there is no beyond.
No larger earth, no loftier heaven,No cleaner, gentler airs to breathe. And yet,Even to us sometimes is givenVisions of things we other times forget.
Some day is done, its labour ended,And as we sit and brood at windows high,A steady wind from far descended,Blows off the filth that hid the deeper sky;
There are the empty waiting spaces,We watch, we watch, unwinking, pale and dumb,Till gliding up with noiseless paces,Night covers all the wide arch: Night has come.
Not that sick false night of the city,Lurid and low and yellow and obscene,But mother Night, pure, full of pity,The star-strewn Night, blue, potent and serene.
O, as we gaze the clamour ceases,The turbid world around grows dim and small,The soft-shed influence releasesOur shrouded spirits from their dusty pall.
No more we hear the turbulent traffic,Not scorned but unremembered is the day;The Night, all luminous and seraphic,Has brushed its heavy memories away.
The great blue Night so clear and kindly,The little stars so wide-eyed and so still,Open a door for souls that blindlyHad wandered, tunnelling the endless hill;
They draw the long-untraversed portal,Our souls slip out and tremble and expand,The immortal feels for the immortal,The eternal holds the eternal by the hand.
Impalpably we are led and lifted,Softly we shake into the gulf of blue,The last environing veil is riftedAnd lost horizons float into our view.
Lost lands, lone seas, lands that afar gleamWith a miraculous beauty, faint yet clear,Forgotten lands of night and star-gleam,Seas that are somewhere but that are not here.
Borne without effort or endeavour,Swifter and more ethereal than the wind,In level track we stream, whilst everThe fair pale panorama rolls behind.
Now fleets below a tranced moorland,A sweep of glimmering immobility;Now craggy cliff and dented forelandPass back and there beyond unfolds the sea.
Now wastes of water heaving, drawing,Great darkling tracts of patterned restlessness,With whitened waves round rough rocks mawingAnd licking islands in their fierce caress.
Now coasts with capes and ribboned beachesSet silent 'neath the canopy sapphirine,And estuaries and river reaches.Phantasmal silver in the night's soft shine.
Ah, these fair woods the spirit crosses,These quiet lakes, these stretched dreaming fields,These undulate downs with piny bossesPointing the ridges of their sloping shields.
These valleys and these heights that screen them,These tawnier sands where grass and tree are not,Ah, we have known them, we have seen them,We saw them long ago and we forgot;
We know them all, these placid countries,And what the pathway is and what the goal;These are the gates and these the sentriesThat guard that ancient fortress of the soul.
And we speed onward flying, flying,Over the sundering waves of hill and plainTo where they rear their heads undyingThe unnamed mountains of old days again.
The snows upon their calm still summits,The chasms, the files of trees that foot the snow,Curving like inky frozen comets,Into the forest-ocean spread below.
The glisten where the peaks are hoarest,The soundless darkness of the sunken vales,The folding leagues of shadowy forest,Edge beyond edge till all distinctness fails.
So invulnerable it is, so deathless,So floods the air the loveliness of it,That we stay dazzled, rapt and breathless,Our beings ebbing to the infinite.
There as we pause, there as we hover,Still-poised in ecstasy, a sudden lightBreaks in our eyes, and we discoverWe sit at windows gazing to the night.
Wistful and tired, with eyes a-tingleWhere still the sting of Beauty faintly smarts;But with our mute regrets there mingleThanks for the resurrection of our hearts.
O night so great that will not mock us!O stars so wise that understand the weak!O vast consoling hands that rock us!O strong and perfect tongues that speak!
O night enrobed in azure splendour!O whispering stars whose radiance falls like dew!O mighty presences and tender,You have given us back the dreams our childhood knew!
Lulled by your visions without number,We seek our beds content and void of pain,And dreaming drowse and dreaming slumberAnd dreaming wake to see the day again.
Words in this poem 40
- dimly adv.
- In a dim or obscure manner; not brightly or clearly; with imperfect sight.
- eyeless a.
- Without eyes; blind.
- cleaner n.
- One who, or that which, cleans.
- lurid a.
- Pale yellow; ghastly pale; wan; gloomy; dismal. [L. luridus.]
- clamour n.
- A great outcry or vociferation; loud and continued shouting or exclamation. [OF. clamour, clamur, F. clameur, fr. L. clamor, fr. clamare to cry out. See Claim.]
- seraphic a.
- Of or pertaining to a seraph; becoming, or suitable to, a seraph; angelic; sublime; pure; refined. [Cf. F. séraphique.]
- blindly adv.
- Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own.
- impalpably adv.
- In an impalpable manner.
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
- endeavour v. t.
- To exert physical or intellectual strength for the attainment of; to use efforts to effect; to strive to achieve or reach; to try; to attempt. [OE. endevor; pref. en- + dever, devoir, duty, F. devoir: cf. F. se mettre en devoir de faire quelque chose to try to do a thing, to go about it. See Devoir, Deb]
- swifter v. t.
- To tighten, as slack standing rigging, by bringing the opposite shrouds nearer.
- moorland n.
- Land consisting of a moor or moors. [AS. morland.]
- immobility n.
- The condition or quality of being immobile; fixedness in place or state. [L. immobilitas, fr. immobilis immovable; pref. im- not + mobilis movable: cf. F. immobilité. See Mobile.]
- dented a.
- Indented; impressed with little hollows. [From Dent, v. t.]
- foreland n.
- A promontory or cape; a headland; as, the North and South Foreland in Kent, England.
- darkling a.
- Becoming dark or gloomy; frowing.
- caress n.
- An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness. [F. caresse, It. carezza, LL. caritia dearness, fr. L. carus dear. See Charity.]
- sapphirine n.
- Resembling sapphire; made of sapphire; having the color, or any quality of sapphire.
- phantasmal a.
- Pertaining to, of the nature of, or resembling, a phantasm; spectral; illusive.
- undulate v. t.
- To cause to move backward and forward, or up and down, in undulations or waves; to cause to vibrate.
- piny a.
- Abounding with pines.
- placid a.
- Pleased; contented; unruffied; undisturbed; serene; peaceful; tranquil; quiet; gentle. [L. placidus, originally, pleasing, mild, from placere to please: cf. F. placide. See Please.]
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
- undying a.
- Not dying; imperishable; unending; immortal; as, the undying souls of men.
- soundless a.
- Not capable of being sounded or fathomed; unfathomable.
- invulnerable a.
- Incapable of being wounded, or of receiving injury. [L. invulnerabilis: cf. F. invulnérable. See In- not, and Vulnerable.]
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- breathless a.
- Spent with labor or violent action; out of breath.
- hover n.
- A cover; a shelter; a protection. Carew. C. Kingsley. [Etymol. doubtful.]
- discover v. i.
- To discover or show one's self.
- wistful a.
- Longing; wishful; desirous. [For wishful; perhaps influenced by wistly, which is probably corrupted from OE. wisly certainly (from Icel. viss certain, akin to E. wit). See Wish.]
- resurrection n.
- A rising again; the resumption of vigor. [F. résurrection, L. resurrectio, fr. resurgere, resurrectum, to rise again; pref. re- re- + surgere to rise. See Source.]
- consoling a.
- Adapted to console or comfort; cheering; as, this is consoling news.
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
- childhood n.
- The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
- drowse v. i.
- To sleep imperfectly or unsoundly; to slumber; to be heavy with sleepiness; to doze. [AS. dr, dr, to sink, become slow or inactive; cf. OD. droosen to be sleepy, fall asleep, LG. dr, druusken, to slumber, fall down with a noise; prob, akin to AS.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Town 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, Town, in Poems: First Series (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37860, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/squire-poems/town.html, id L23150.
Form and metre
Town is 112 lines in 28 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 23 of its 28 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 ABAB rotationA · sleepB · meditationA · weepB
- 2 ABAB wretchesA · pondB · stretchesA · beyondB
- 3 -A-A heaven · yetA · given · forgetA
- 4 ABAB endedA · highB · descendedA · skyB
- 5 ABAB spacesA · dumbB · pacesA · comeB
- 6 ABAB cityA · obsceneB · pityA · sereneB
- 7 ABAB ceasesA · smallB · releasesA · pallB
- 8 ABAB trafficA · dayB · seraphicA · awayB
- 9 ABAB kindlyA · stillB · blindlyA · hillB
- 10 ABAB portalA · expandB · immortalA · handB
- 11 ABAB liftedA · blueB · riftedA · viewB
- 12 ABAB gleamA · clearB · gleamA · hereB
- 13 ABAB endeavourA · windB · everA · behindB
- 14 A-A- moorlandA · immobility · forelandA · sea
- 15 ABAB drawingA · restlessnessB · mawingA · caressB
- 16 A-A- beachesA · sapphirine · reachesA · shine
- 17 ABAB crossesA · fieldsB · bossesA · shieldsB
- 18 ABAB themA · notB · themA · forgotB
- 19 -A-A countries · goalA · sentries · soulA
- 20 ABAB flyingA · plainB · undyingA · againB
- 21 -A-A summits · snowA · comets · belowA
- 22 ABAB hoarestA · valesB · forestA · failsB
- 23 ABAB deathlessA · itB · breathlessA · infiniteB
- 24 ABAB hoverA · lightB · discoverA · nightB
- 25 ABAB tingleA · smartsB · mingleA · heartsB
- 26 ABAB usA · weakB · usA · speakB
- 27 ABAB splendourA · dewB · tenderA · knewB
- 28 ABAB numberA · painB · slumberA · againB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mostly in a dull rotation | 8 | /˘···˘/˘ |
| We bear our loads and eat and drink and sleep. | 10 | ··/······· |
| Feeling no tears, knowing no meditation-- | 11 | /˘··/˘··˘/˘ |
| Too tired to think, too clogged with earth to weep. | 10 | ·/········ |
| Dimly convinced, poor groping wretches, | 10 | /˘˘/˘·/˘·· |
| Like eyeless insects in a murky pond | 10 | ·/˘/···/˘· |
| That out and out this city stretches, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Away, away, and there is no beyond. | 10 | ˘/˘/······ |
| No larger earth, no loftier heaven, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘/˘ |
| No cleaner, gentler airs to breathe. And yet, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Even to us sometimes is given | 9 | /˘··˘/·/˘ |
| Visions of things we other times forget. | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| Some day is done, its labour ended, | 9 | ·····/·/˘ |
| And as we sit and brood at windows high, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A steady wind from far descended, | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| Blows off the filth that hid the deeper sky; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| There are the empty waiting spaces, | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| We watch, we watch, unwinking, pale and dumb, | 10 | ·········· |
| Till gliding up with noiseless paces, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Night covers all the wide arch: Night has come. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Not that sick false night of the city, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Lurid and low and yellow and obscene, | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| But mother Night, pure, full of pity, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| The star-strewn Night, blue, potent and serene. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| O, as we gaze the clamour ceases, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| The turbid world around grows dim and small, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The soft-shed influence releases | 9 | ···/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Our shrouded spirits from their dusty pall. | 10 | //˘/˘··/˘· |
| No more we hear the turbulent traffic, | 10 | ·····/˘˘/˘ |
| Not scorned but unremembered is the day; | 10 | ·········· |
| The Night, all luminous and seraphic, | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Has brushed its heavy memories away. | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| The great blue Night so clear and kindly, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| The little stars so wide-eyed and so still, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Open a door for souls that blindly | 9 | /˘·····/˘ |
| Had wandered, tunnelling the endless hill; | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| They draw the long-untraversed portal, | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| Our souls slip out and tremble and expand, | 10 | /····/˘·˘/ |
| The immortal feels for the immortal, | 10 | ·˘/˘···˘/˘ |
| The eternal holds the eternal by the hand. | 12 | ·˘/˘··˘/˘··· |
| Impalpably we are led and lifted, | 10 | ˘/˘˘····/˘ |
| Softly we shake into the gulf of blue, | 10 | /˘········ |
| The last environing veil is rifted | 10 | ········/˘ |
| And lost horizons float into our view. | 10 | ··˘/˘···/· |
| Lost lands, lone seas, lands that afar gleam | 9 | ······˘/· |
| With a miraculous beauty, faint yet clear, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Forgotten lands of night and star-gleam, | 9 | ˘/˘······ |
| Seas that are somewhere but that are not here. | 10 | ···/······ |
| Borne without effort or endeavour, | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| Swifter and more ethereal than the wind, | 10 | /˘··˘/˘··· |
| In level track we stream, whilst ever | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| The fair pale panorama rolls behind. | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Now fleets below a tranced moorland, | 9 | ······˘/· |
| A sweep of glimmering immobility; | 11 | ···/˘˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Now craggy cliff and dented foreland | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Pass back and there beyond unfolds the sea. | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Now wastes of water heaving, drawing, | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| Great darkling tracts of patterned restlessness, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| With whitened waves round rough rocks mawing | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| And licking islands in their fierce caress. | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Now coasts with capes and ribboned beaches | 10 | ·····/˘˘/˘ |
| Set silent 'neath the canopy sapphirine, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘˘/˘˘ |
| And estuaries and river reaches. | 10 | ·/˘·˘·/˘/˘ |
| Phantasmal silver in the night's soft shine. | 10 | ˘/˘/˘····· |
| Ah, these fair woods the spirit crosses, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| These quiet lakes, these stretched dreaming fields, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| These undulate downs with piny bosses | 10 | ·/˘···/˘/˘ |
| Pointing the ridges of their sloping shields. | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| These valleys and these heights that screen them, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| These tawnier sands where grass and tree are not, | 10 | ·········· |
| Ah, we have known them, we have seen them, | 9 | ········· |
| We saw them long ago and we forgot; | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| We know them all, these placid countries, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| And what the pathway is and what the goal; | 10 | ···/······ |
| These are the gates and these the sentries | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| That guard that ancient fortress of the soul. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And we speed onward flying, flying, | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| Over the sundering waves of hill and plain | 10 | ··/˘˘····· |
| To where they rear their heads undying | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| The unnamed mountains of old days again. | 10 | ·˘//˘···˘/ |
| The snows upon their calm still summits, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| The chasms, the files of trees that foot the snow, | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Curving like inky frozen comets, | 9 | /˘·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Into the forest-ocean spread below. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The glisten where the peaks are hoarest, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| The soundless darkness of the sunken vales, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| The folding leagues of shadowy forest, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘/˘ |
| Edge beyond edge till all distinctness fails. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| So invulnerable it is, so deathless, | 11 | ·˘/˘˘˘···/˘ |
| So floods the air the loveliness of it, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| That we stay dazzled, rapt and breathless, | 10 | ···/˘˘··/˘ |
| Our beings ebbing to the infinite. | 11 | /˘/˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| There as we pause, there as we hover, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Still-poised in ecstasy, a sudden light | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Breaks in our eyes, and we discover | 10 | ··/˘···˘/˘ |
| We sit at windows gazing to the night. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Wistful and tired, with eyes a-tingle | 10 | /˘·/˘···/˘ |
| Where still the sting of Beauty faintly smarts; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| But with our mute regrets there mingle | 10 | ··/˘·˘/·/˘ |
| Thanks for the resurrection of our hearts. | 10 | ····˘/˘·/· |
| O night so great that will not mock us! | 9 | ········· |
| O stars so wise that understand the weak! | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| O vast consoling hands that rock us! | 9 | ··˘/˘···· |
| O strong and perfect tongues that speak! | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| O night enrobed in azure splendour! | 10 | ····˘·/˘/˘ |
| O whispering stars whose radiance falls like dew! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| O mighty presences and tender, | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘ |
| You have given us back the dreams our childhood knew! | 11 | ··/····//·· |
| Lulled by your visions without number, | 10 | ·˘··/˘··/˘ |
| We seek our beds content and void of pain, | 10 | ··/·/˘···· |
| And dreaming drowse and dreaming slumber | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| And dreaming wake to see the day again. | 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.