Tears
IT seems I have no tears left. They should have fallen--Their ghosts, if tears have ghosts, did fall--that dayWhen twenty hounds streamed by me, not yet combedoutBut still all equals in their rage of gladnessUpon the scent, made one, like a great dragonIn Blooming Meadow that bends towards the sunAnd once bore hops: and on that other dayWhen I stepped out from the double-shadowed TowerInto an April morning, stirring and sweetAnd warm. Strange solitude was there and silence.A mightier charm than any in the TowerPossessed the courtyard. They were changing guardSoldiers in line, young English countrymen,Fair-haired and ruddy, in white tunics. DrumsAnd fifes were playing "The British Grenadiers".The men, the music piercing that solitudeAnd silence, told me truths I had not dreamedAnd have forgotten since their beauty passed.
About this text
Tears 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, Tears, in Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22423, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/thomas-edward-poems/tears.html, id L08135.
Form and metre
Tears is 19 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 74% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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---BBAC--C------- fallen · dayA · combed · out · gladness · dragonB · sunB · dayA · towerC · sweet · silence · towerC · guard · countrymen · drums · grenadiers · solitude · dreamed · passed
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| IT seems I have no tears left. They should have fallen-- | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| Their ghosts, if tears have ghosts, did fall--that day | 10 | ·········· |
| When twenty hounds streamed by me, not yet combed | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| out | 1 | · |
| But still all equals in their rage of gladness | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Upon the scent, made one, like a great dragon | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| In Blooming Meadow that bends towards the sun | 10 | ·/˘/······ |
| And once bore hops: and on that other day | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| When I stepped out from the double-shadowed Tower | 11 | ······/˘/˘/ |
| Into an April morning, stirring and sweet | 11 | ···/˘/˘/˘·· |
| And warm. Strange solitude was there and silence. | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| A mightier charm than any in the Tower | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··/ |
| Possessed the courtyard. They were changing guard | 10 | ˘/·/···/˘· |
| Soldiers in line, young English countrymen, | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘˘ |
| Fair-haired and ruddy, in white tunics. Drums | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And fifes were playing "The British Grenadiers". | 11 | ···/˘·/˘··· |
| The men, the music piercing that solitude | 11 | ···/˘/˘·/˘· |
| And silence, told me truths I had not dreamed | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And have forgotten since their beauty passed. | 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.