Keepsake Mill
Over the borders, a sin without pardon,Breaking the branches and crawling below,Out through the breach in the wall of the garden,Down by the banks of the river we go.
Here is a mill with the humming of thunder,Here is the weir with the wonder of foam,Here is the sluice with the race running under--Marvellous places, though handy to home!
Sounds of the village grow stiller and stiller,Stiller the note of the birds on the hill;Dusty and dim are the eyes of the miller,Deaf are his ears with the moil of the mill.
Years may go by, and the wheel in the riverWheel as it wheels for us, children, to-day,Wheel and keep roaring and foaming for everLong after all of the boys are away.
Home for the Indies and home from the ocean,Heroes and soldiers we all will come home;Still we shall find the old mill wheel in motion,Turning and churning that river to foam.
You with the bean that I gave when we quarrelled,I with your marble of Saturday last,Honoured and old and all gaily apparelled,Here we shall meet and remember the past.
Words in this poem
- handy a.
- Performed by the hand. [OE. hendi, AS. hendig (in comp.), fr. hand hand; akin to D. handig, Goth. handugs clever, wise.]
- stiller n.
- One who stills, or quiets.
- moil v. t.
- To daub; to make dirty; to soil; to defile. [OE. moillen to wet, OF. moillier, muillier, F. mouller, fr. (assumed) LL. molliare, fr. L. mollis soft. See Mollify.]
- 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,]
- churning n.
- The act of one who churns.
- saturday n.
- The seventh or last day of the week; the day following Friday and preceding Sunday. [OE. Saterday, AS. Sæterdæg, Sæterndæg, Sæternesdæg, literally, Saturn's day, fr. L. Saturnus Saturn + AS. dæg day; cf. L. dies Saturni.]
- gaily adv.
- Merrily; showily. See gaily. [From Gay.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Keepsake Mill is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Child's Garden of Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #136; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Louis Stevenson, Keepsake Mill, in A Child's Garden of Verses (1885), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #136, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stevenson-childs-garden/keepsake-mill.html, id L07197.
Form and metre
Keepsake Mill is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is dactylic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 98%). 82% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in dactylic 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 ABAB pardonA · belowB · gardenA · goB
- 2 ABAB thunderA · foamB · underA · homeB
- 3 ABAB stillerA · hillB · millerA · millB
- 4 ABAB riverA · dayB · everA · awayB
- 5 ABAB oceanA · homeB · motionA · foamB
- 6 ABAB quarrelledA · lastB · apparelledA · pastB
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 dactylic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Over the borders, a sin without pardon, | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| Breaking the branches and crawling below, | 10 | /˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| Out through the breach in the wall of the garden, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Down by the banks of the river we go. | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Here is a mill with the humming of thunder, | 11 | ······/˘·/˘ |
| Here is the weir with the wonder of foam, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Here is the sluice with the race running under-- | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Marvellous places, though handy to home! | 10 | ···/˘·/˘·· |
| Sounds of the village grow stiller and stiller, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Stiller the note of the birds on the hill; | 10 | /˘········ |
| Dusty and dim are the eyes of the miller, | 11 | /˘·······/˘ |
| Deaf are his ears with the moil of the mill. | 10 | ·········· |
| Years may go by, and the wheel in the river | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Wheel as it wheels for us, children, to-day, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Wheel and keep roaring and foaming for ever | 10 | ···/˘·/˘·/ |
| Long after all of the boys are away. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Home for the Indies and home from the ocean, | 10 | ···/˘····/ |
| Heroes and soldiers we all will come home; | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Still we shall find the old mill wheel in motion, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Turning and churning that river to foam. | 10 | /˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| You with the bean that I gave when we quarrelled, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| I with your marble of Saturday last, | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| Honoured and old and all gaily apparelled, | 11 | /˘····/˘˘/˘ |
| Here we shall meet and remember the past. | 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.