Dark house, by which once more I stand
Dark house, by which once more I standHere in the long unlovely street,Doors, where my heart was used to beatSo quickly, waiting for a hand,
A hand that can be clasp’d no more--Behold me, for I cannot sleep,And like a guilty thing I creepAt earliest morning to the door.
He is not here; but far awayThe noise of life begins again,And ghastly thro’ the drizzling rainOn the bald street breaks the blank day.
Words in this poem
- unlovely a.
- Not lovely; not amiable; possessing qualities that excite dislike; disagreeable; displeasing; unpleasant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dark house, by which once more I stand 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, Dark house, by which once more I stand, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-7.html, id L18367.
Form and metre
Dark house, by which once more I stand is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 42% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end. Rhymes that have moved apart since the poem was written: blood / good.
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 standA · streetB · beatB · handA
- 2 ABBA moreA · sleepB · creepB · doorA
- 3 ABBA awayA · againB · rainB · dayA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dark house, by which once more I stand | 8 | ········ |
| Here in the long unlovely street, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Doors, where my heart was used to beat | 8 | ········ |
| So quickly, waiting for a hand, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| A hand that can be clasp’d no more-- | 8 | ········ |
| Behold me, for I cannot sleep, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| And like a guilty thing I creep | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| At earliest morning to the door. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| He is not here; but far away | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The noise of life begins again, | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| And ghastly thro’ the drizzling rain | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| On the bald street breaks the blank day. | 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.