“Rooms” Introduction

• Read the full text of “Rooms”

“Rooms” Summary

“Rooms” Themes

• 

  The Unlived Life

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-10
• 

  The Trap of Unhappiness

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-10

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Rooms”

• Lines 1-2

  I remember rooms ...
  ... of the heart.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-5

  The room in ...
  ... of the tide—

  

  

  

  

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• Line 6

       Rooms where ... for ill—things died.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-8

  But there is ...
  ... to sleep again

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-10

       As we ...
  ... sun—in the rain.

  

  

  

  

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“Rooms” Symbols

• 

  Rooms

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-10
• 

  The Sea

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 4-5: “The little damp room with the seaweed smell, / And that ceaseless maddening sound of the tide—”

“Rooms” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Parallelism

  

  

  

  

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  Where parallelism appears in the poem:

  • Lines 3-4: “The room in Paris, the room at Geneva, / The little damp room with the seaweed smell,”
  • Line 6: “for good,” “for ill”
  • Line 10: “in the sun—in the rain.”

• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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  Where repetition appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “rooms”
  • Line 3: “The room,” “the room”
  • Line 4: “The,” “room”
  • Line 6: “Rooms”
  • Line 7: “room”
  • Line 8: “seem to,” “seem to”
  • Line 10: “in the,” “in the”

• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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  Where imagery appears in the poem:

  • Line 2: “the steady slowing down of the heart”
  • Lines 4-5: “The little damp room with the seaweed smell, / And that ceaseless maddening sound of the tide—”
  • Lines 9-10: “the other quieter, dustier bed /      Out there in the sun—in the rain.”

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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  Where alliteration appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “remember rooms,” “have had”
  • Line 2: “steady slowing”
  • Line 4: “seaweed smell”
  • Line 5: “ceaseless,” “sound”
  • Line 7: “where we”
  • Line 8: “seem,” “seem,” “sleep”

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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  Where metaphor appears in the poem:

  • Line 2: “     In the steady slowing down of the heart.”
  • Line 7: “where we (two) lie dead,”
  • Lines 9-10: “the other quieter, dustier bed /      Out there in the sun—in the rain.”

• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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  Where caesura appears in the poem:

  • Line 3: “Paris, the”
  • Line 6: “ill—things”
  • Line 9: “quieter, dustier”
  • Line 10: “sun—in”

• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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  Where enjambment appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-2: “part /      In”
  • Lines 8-9: “again /      As”
  • Lines 9-10: “bed /      Out”

“Rooms” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Geneva
• Ceaseless
• Ill

• (Location in poem: Line 3: “the room at Geneva”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Rooms”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Rooms” Speaker

“Rooms” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Rooms”

More “Rooms” Resources

• External Resources

  • Charlotte Mew's Life and Work — A biography of the poet at the Poetry Foundation.

  • More About the Poet — A profile of Mew at the Modernist Archives Publishing Project.

  • The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a reading of "Rooms."

  • More by Mew — Browse original editions of Mew's work at the Internet Archive.

  • A Meditation on Mew and More — An essay by Eavan Boland that reflects on Mew's life and "the definitions of a poet."

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Charlotte Mew

  • A Quoi Bon Dire

  • The Farmer's Bride

  • The Trees are Down