With such compelling cause to grieve
With such compelling cause to grieveAs daily vexes household peace,And chains regret to his decease,How dare we keep our Christmas-eve;
Which brings no more a welcome guestTo enrich the threshold of the nightWith shower’d largess of delight,In dance and song and game and jest.
Yet go, and while the holly boughsEntwine the cold baptismal font,Make one wreath more for Use and WontThat guard the portals of the house;
Old sisters of a day gone by,Gray nurses, loving nothing new;Why should they miss their yearly dueBefore their time? They too will die.
Words in this poem
- largess n.
- Liberality; generosity; bounty. [F. largesse, fr. large. See Large, a.]
- jest n.
- A deed; an action; a gest. [OE. jeste, geste, deed, action, story, tale, OF. geste, LL. gesta, orig., exploits, neut. pl. from L. gestus, p. p. of gerere to bear, carry, accomplish, perfor]
- entwine v. t.
- To twine, twist, or wreathe together or round. [Pref. en- + twine. Cf. Intwine.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
With such compelling cause to grieve is in the public domain. This text is taken from In memoriam, Project Gutenberg ebook #70950; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Tennyson, With such compelling cause to grieve, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-29.html, id L18389.
Form and metre
With such compelling cause to grieve is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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 ABBA grieveA · peaceB · deceaseB · eveA
- 2 ABBA guestA · nightB · delightB · jestA
- 3 ABBA boughsA · fontB · wontB · houseA
- 4 ABBA byA · newB · dueB · dieA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| With such compelling cause to grieve | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| As daily vexes household peace, | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| And chains regret to his decease, | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| How dare we keep our Christmas-eve; | 8 | ····//˘· |
| Which brings no more a welcome guest | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To enrich the threshold of the night | 9 | ·˘/·/···· |
| With shower’d largess of delight, | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| In dance and song and game and jest. | 8 | ········ |
| Yet go, and while the holly boughs | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Entwine the cold baptismal font, | 8 | ˘/··˘/˘· |
| Make one wreath more for Use and Wont | 8 | ········ |
| That guard the portals of the house; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Old sisters of a day gone by, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Gray nurses, loving nothing new; | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Why should they miss their yearly due | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Before their time? They too will die. | 8 | ········ |
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.