The Empty Nest
I saunter all about the pleasant placeYou made thrice pleasant, O my friends, to me;But you are gone where laughs in radiant graceThat thousand-memoried unimpulsive sea.To storied precincts of the southern foam,Dear birds of passage, ye have taken wing,And ah! for me, when April wafts you home,The spring will more than ever be the springStill lovely, as of old, this haunted ground;Tenderly, still, the autumn sunshine falls;And gorgeously the woodlands tower around,Freak'd with wild light at golden intervals:Yet, for the ache your absence leaves, O friends,Earth's lifeless pageantries are poor amends.
Words in this poem
- storied a.
- Told in a story. [From Story.]
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- tenderly adv.
- In a tender manner; with tenderness; mildly; gently; softly; in a manner not to injure or give pain; with pity or affection; kindly.
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- ache n.
- A name given to several species of plants; as, smallage, wild celery, parsley. Holland. [F. ache, L. apium parsley.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Empty Nest is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of William Watson, Project Gutenberg ebook #13179; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Watson, The Empty Nest, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/the-empty-nest.html, id L11273.
Form and metre
The Empty Nest is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other English sonnets, 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG placeA · meB · graceA · seaB · foamC · wingD · homeC · springD · groundE · fallsF · aroundE · intervalsF · friendsG · amendsG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I saunter all about the pleasant place | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| You made thrice pleasant, O my friends, to me; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But you are gone where laughs in radiant grace | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That thousand-memoried unimpulsive sea. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| To storied precincts of the southern foam, | 10 | ·/˘/···/˘· |
| Dear birds of passage, ye have taken wing, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And ah! for me, when April wafts you home, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The spring will more than ever be the spring | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Still lovely, as of old, this haunted ground; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Tenderly, still, the autumn sunshine falls; | 10 | /˘˘··/˘/·· |
| And gorgeously the woodlands tower around, | 10 | ·····/·/·· |
| Freak'd with wild light at golden intervals: | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Yet, for the ache your absence leaves, O friends, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Earth's lifeless pageantries are poor amends. | 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.