Below
LOUDLY sweep the winds of autumnO'er that lone, beloved grave,Where we laid those sunny ringlets,When those blue eyes set like stars,Leaving us to outer darkness.O the longing and the aching!O the sere deserted grave!
Let the grass turn brown upon thee,Brown and withered like our dreams!Let the wind moan through the pine-treesWith a dreary, dirge-like whistle,Sweep the dead leaves on its bosom,--Moaning, sobbing through the branches,Where the summer laughed so gayly.
He is gone, our boy of summer,--Gone the light of his blue eyes,Gone the tender heart and manly,Gone the dreams and the aspirings,--Nothing but the mound remaineth,And the aching in our bosoms,Ever aching, ever throbbing:Who shall bring it unto rest?
Words in this poem
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
- sere n.
- Claw; talon. Chapman. [F. serre.]
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
- sobbing n.
- A series of short, convulsive inspirations, the glottis being suddenly closed so that little or no air enters into the lungs.
- gayly adv.
- With mirth and frolic; merrily; blithely; gleefully.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Below is in the public domain. This text is taken from Religious Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #44778; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Below, in Religious Poems (1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #44778, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stowe-religious-poems/below.html, id L22718.
Form and metre
Below is 22 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 autumn · graveA · ringlets · stars · darkness · aching · graveA
- 2 --A--A- thee · dreams · treesA · whistle · bosom · branchesA · gayly
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| LOUDLY sweep the winds of autumn | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| O'er that lone, beloved grave, | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Where we laid those sunny ringlets, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| When those blue eyes set like stars, | 7 | ······· |
| Leaving us to outer darkness. | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| O the longing and the aching! | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| O the sere deserted grave! | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Let the grass turn brown upon thee, | 8 | ········ |
| Brown and withered like our dreams! | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Let the wind moan through the pine-trees | 8 | ········ |
| With a dreary, dirge-like whistle, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Sweep the dead leaves on its bosom,-- | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Moaning, sobbing through the branches, | 8 | /˘/˘··/˘ |
| Where the summer laughed so gayly. | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| He is gone, our boy of summer,-- | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Gone the light of his blue eyes, | 7 | ······· |
| Gone the tender heart and manly, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Gone the dreams and the aspirings,-- | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Nothing but the mound remaineth, | 8 | /˘···˘/˘ |
| And the aching in our bosoms, | 9 | ··/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Ever aching, ever throbbing: | 8 | /˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Who shall bring it unto rest? | 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.