Melancholy
THE rain and wind, the rain and wind, raved endlessly.On me the Summer storm, and fever, and melancholyWrought magic, so that if I feared the solitudeFar more I feared all company: too sharp, too rude,Had been the wisest or the dearest human voice.What I desired I knew not, but whate'er my choiceVain it must be, I knew. Yet naught did my despairBut sweeten the strange sweetness, while through thewild airAll day long I heard a distant cuckoo callingAnd, soft as dulcimers, sounds of near water falling,And, softer, and remote as if in history,Rumours of what had touched my friends, my foes,or me.
Words in this poem
- endlessly adv.
- In an endless manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Melancholy is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22423; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edward Thomas, Melancholy, in Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22423, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/thomas-edward-poems/melancholy.html, id L08170.
Form and metre
Melancholy is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 --AABBCDC----D endlessly · melancholy · solitudeA · rudeA · voiceB · choiceB · despairC · theD · airC · calling · falling · history · foes · meD
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| THE rain and wind, the rain and wind, raved endlessly. | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| On me the Summer storm, and fever, and melancholy | 14 | ···/˘··/˘·/˘·˘ |
| Wrought magic, so that if I feared the solitude | 12 | ·/˘······/˘· |
| Far more I feared all company: too sharp, too rude, | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| Had been the wisest or the dearest human voice. | 12 | ···/˘··/˘/˘· |
| What I desired I knew not, but whate'er my choice | 13 | ··˘/····˘˘/·· |
| Vain it must be, I knew. Yet naught did my despair | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| But sweeten the strange sweetness, while through the | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| wild air | 2 | ·· |
| All day long I heard a distant cuckoo calling | 12 | ······/˘/·/˘ |
| And, soft as dulcimers, sounds of near water falling, | 12 | ···/˘···/˘/˘ |
| And, softer, and remote as if in history, | 11 | ·/˘·˘/···/˘ |
| Rumours of what had touched my friends, my foes, | 10 | ·˘········ |
| or me. | 2 | ·· |
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.