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Rooms
The scarce details all suggest a speaker who hasn't been able to
SUMMARY live fully—whose life has been limited to the “rooms” in which
they've stayed. These can be read as both literal rooms and as
The speaker recalls being in certain rooms that contributed to
symbols of the speaker’s feelings of repression and
the slow dwindling of their energy, passion, and vitality. For
confinement. Maybe they’ve felt trapped by responsibilities
example, there was a room in Paris, France; another in Geneva,
(like having to care for a family member, as Mew did); maybe
Switzerland; and a small, clammy room that smelled like
they’ve felt repressed by social norms (it’s worth remembering
seaweed and let in constant ocean sounds that drove the
that Mew grew up in morally rigid Victorian England); or maybe
speaker crazy. There were rooms where, for better or worse,
the speaker just has a risk-averse, reclusive personality.
deaths and other endings took place. Now, the speaker and an
unnamed partner lie as still as corpses in yet another room. In the end, it's not clear why the speaker isn't exploring and
While it looks like they wake up each morning, the speaker appreciating life more, just that not doing so has made them
thinks they might as well go back to sleep—just as they'll feel like the living dead. They share their current room with
someday metaphorically sleep outside in the silent, dirty "bed" another person, who might be romantic partner or family
of the grave, under both sunshine and rain. member (Mew did in fact live with her sister through the
latter’s illness). Though these two residents are technically
alive, they "lie" as "dead" as they someday will in their actual
THEMES graves. Their room is like a coffin; they “might just as well” go
back to sleep after getting up, the speaker says, implying that
there’s no point to their lives at all.
THE UNLIVED LIFE
The only time the speaker envisions being “out there” is when
The speaker of "Rooms" looks back on various rooms
they actually die and are buried in the earth, beneath “the sun”
they've lived in over the years: “the room in Paris,” “at
or “the rain.” This final image might imply, with grim iron
ironyy, that
Geneva,” “the little damp room” by the sea, and so forth. Their
freedom can only be found in death, when one escapes the
reflections are more bitter than nostalgic: in breaking their
soul-sucking restrictions and disappointments of life.
memories up into a series of restrictive, four-walled spaces, the
speaker suggests that their life has been defined by
confinement and/or the inability to live openly. This might be Where this theme appears in the poem:
because the speaker suppressed their own needs and feelings, • Lines 1-10
lived in a repressive society, or both. Regardless, the poem
suggests that not living fully and freely isn’t really living at all:
each of these rooms has played a “part” in the “steady slowing” THE TRAP OF UNHAPPINESS
of the speaker’s “heart,” draining the speaker’s vitality and The speaker of "Rooms" associates the various
bringing them closer to death. In fact, the speaker’s present rooms they’ve lived in with confinement and
rooming situation is so dull and suffocating that it might as well disappointment. They never really describe these places,
be a grave. however, and it's not clear that their rooms have actually caused
The poem reveals almost nothing about the speaker's life the speaker's unhappiness in any way. On the contrary, it seems
beyond a deep dissatisfaction. The speaker mentions living in that the speaker's own unhappiness is what has made their
tourist spots and cultural centers like "Paris" and "Geneva," but rooms feel dismal and confining. In this way, the poem might
doesn't describe anything about their experiences there. suggest that rooms don't affect so much as reflect the
There’s no mention of meaningful places or people; instead, the "heart[s]" of their inhabitants. Thus, while it’s possible to read
speaker just says that there were “rooms.” these “rooms” as metaphorical representations of the
The poem's only flash of emotion comes as the speaker calls the confinement the speaker has dealt with throughout life, it’s also
sea sounds outside one of their rooms "maddening." But even possible to interpret them as literal rooms darkened by the
this detail suggests an exasperating monotony; the repetitive speaker’s own suffocating, inescapable despair. In this reading,
sounds of the tide going in and out, day after day, might remind the poem suggests that people carry their unhappiness
the speaker that their own life feels stuck in place. wherever they go; if you're miserable, it doesn’t matter where
Par
arado
adoxically
xically, the tide can also be read as a symbol of time and you move to—you'll still be miserable there.
change, and its mention perhaps suggests that the speaker is The speaker connects the series of rooms they've lived in with
frustrated by the sounds of the world moving on without them. personal loss and diminishing vitality. They claim that these

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rooms have played a "part / In the steady slowing down of the ... of the heart.
heart," with "the heart" implying one's overall life force as well The poem opens with a rh rhyming
yming couplet that establishes a
as, perhaps, one's romantic feelings. These rooms have reflective, yet unsettling, tone
tone:
lessened their feelings of joy, love, etc. The speaker then recalls
a room where they were disturbed by the sound and smell of I remember rooms that have had their part
the ocean: a mood-dampening reminder of time and change. In the steady slowing down of the heart.
They also mention "Rooms where [...] things died," marking
rooms as both sites and reminders of death. "I remember" might sound like a nostalgic opening, but the
The speaker then portrays their current, shared room as a second line hints that the speaker won't necessarily be sharing
bleak, tomblike place, linking it with their own decayed passion pleasant memories. The speaker is recalling rooms—not homes
and approaching demise. With eerie detachment, the speaker or other places associated with belonging—and the rooms they
refers to the room as if observing the residents from the recall have played a role "In the steady slowing down of the
outside: "there is the room where we (two) lie dead." Basically, heart." This phrase appears to be a metaphor for a gradual loss
the residents' shared life in this room is a preview of death: of energy, passion, love, etc. The speaker is remembering living
they're so listless, they "seem to sleep again" even while awake, spaces that seemed to age them, not places that stirred their
and they're as emotionally cold as they someday will be in the heart.
"bed" of the grave. It's unclear how or why these rooms sapped the speaker's
Of course, rooms are inanimate; they can only reflect the passion, and that ambiguity will extend throughout the poem.
speaker's own feelings, and it seems that the speaker projects The poem never describes any of the speaker's rooms in depth
their own lethargy and unhappiness onto the rooms around either, so it's impossible to know whether they were large or
them. After all, two of the speaker's past rooms were in Paris small, beautiful or ugly, etc. Since the details of each setting
and Geneva—places that many people find romantic and barely matter to the speaker, it's possible that these rooms
inspiring! Many people would also find a seaside room romantic reflect the speaker's emotional state more than they affect it. In
rather than "maddening." Even the "things" that "died" in the other words, the speaker may be projecting their despair or
speaker's past rooms did so "for good or ill." That is, some of the exhaustion onto any and all rooms around them.
endings that happened there may have been positive rather
These first two lines establish the rough, four-beat accentual
than negative.
meter that will run throughout lines 1-7 of the poem. (Things
In all these cases, however, the speaker chooses not to get a little weirder starting in line 8.) Basically, each line
emphasize the positive. As for the speaker's current room, they contains four strong stresses
stresses, but the pattern/arrangement of
never describe it at all—it's as if the exact location and features those stresses varies a lot from line to line:
don't matter. The room is shared, not solitary, but the speaker
emphasizes only the lifelessness of the two residents rather I remem
member rooms that have had their part
than the relationship or companionship between them. It In the stead
steady slow
slowing down of the heart
heart.
seems, then, that the speaker doesn't feel depressed and
zombie-like because their room resembles a tomb; their room For example, there are two syllables ("that have") in between
resembles a tomb because they feel depressed and zombie-like. the second and third strong stresses in line 1, but only one
In general, the poem suggests that people's surroundings are syllable ("-ing") between the second and third strong stresses in
what make them happy or unhappy; instead, these line 2. The difference in the metrical rhythm helps convey the
surroundings mirror the backgrounds, personalities, and altered rhythm of the speaker's heart.
feelings people bring to them. Even the grave, the final "room," There's also a lot of alliter
alliteration
ation in these two lines:
receives "sun" as well as "rain"—but the melancholy speaker "rremember"/"rrooms"; "h have had"; "ssteady slowing." Both of the
closes by emphasizing the second. alliterative syllables in "stead
steady slow
slowing" are also metrically
stressed syllables, so the alliteration heightens that stress—and
Where this theme appears in the poem: adds to the sense that this second line is moving "slow[er]" than
the first.
• Lines 1-10
LINES 3-5
The room in ...
LINE-BY
LINE-BY-LINE
-LINE ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS ... of the tide—
Lines 3-5 list examples of rooms that have "slow[ed] down [...]
LINES 1-2
the heart," or drained the speaker's vitality and passion. The
I remember rooms ...

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speaker offers sparse descriptions in a series of parparallel
allel experience. The speaker doesn't even bother saying where the
phrases: "The
The room [...] the room [...] The little damp room
room." "damp room" is located!
These repetitions
repetitions, which qualify as both anaphor
anaphoraa and diacope
diacope,
seem to mirror the dull repetitiveness of the speaker's LINE 6
existence. Rooms where ... for ill—things died.
The rooms are presented as merely a series of places, with no Line 6 is the closest the poem comes to explaining the
warm or detailed memories attached to them. One is described significance of the speaker's rooms. The poem has already
as simply "in Paris" (the capital of France), another as "in withheld some of the context readers might expect, such as
Geneva" (the second-largest city in Switzerland). Both Paris what these rooms looked like or why the speaker moved
and Geneva are beautiful, classic European cities, but the around so much. Now the speaker seems on the verge of
speaker doesn't describe going out in either nor doing anything describing some important incidents that happened in their
while staying inside. Paris is often associated with romance, rooms, whether "for good or for ill" (for better or worse). And
fashion, art, and culture, so maybe this detail corresponds with yet, instead, the speaker simply says that "things died,"
a romantic or creative time in the speaker's life—but if so, the withholding context yet again.
speaker gives no hint of it. This enigmatic phrasing raises all sorts of questions. Did people
Then the speaker describes a third room, located beside or or animals die in the speaker's former rooms, or just "things"?
near the ocean, in frankly unpleasant terms: Were these "things" abstractions such as hopes, dreams, fears,
or relationships? Or has the speaker become so indifferent to
The little damp room with the seaweed smell, life that they consider living things just another kind of "thing"?
And that ceaseless maddening sound of the tide [...] How was it "good" that certain "things died"?
There's clearly a lot of unspoken backstory here, but the
Again, plenty of people would likely find a seaside room speaker seems unwilling or unable to discuss their past in
romantic or beautiful, but not the speaker. The speaker detail, even while reminiscing. Perhaps their reticence implies
complains of the room's "damp[ness]" and "seaweed smell" and that their past is too painful, dreary, or uncomfortable to
finds the sound of the tides "maddening." There are numerous discuss, except in the broadest terms.
reasons why this sound might irk the speaker:
Even the caesur
caesuraa in this line is psychologically interesting. The
dash between "for good or for ill" and "things died" seems to
• Repetitive sea sounds might remind the speaker of
represent a hesitation on the speaker's part. Perhaps the
their own repetitive life.
speaker is about to spill the beans about what happened in
• The openness and wildness of the ocean might make
these rooms—or at least reveal a little personal detail—but pulls
the speaker's room feel all the more cramped and
tame. back at the last second.
• The tides, which traditionally symbolize time and LINES 7-8
change, might remind the speaker that the world
goes on without them as they stay in their room. But there is ...
• The tide's "ceaseless[ness]" might contrast with ... to sleep again
their own mortality (the ocean is eternal, but the Lines 7-8 shift into the present tense, as the speaker describes
speaker is a temporary resident of earth, just as they their current room. The description is eerily detached:
are of their "rooms").
• Tides wear down the shore, so the speaker, too, But there is the room where we (two) lie dead,
might feel worn down as they listen to the noise.
(Recall the "steady slowing down of the heart" in Notice that the speaker says "there," not "here," as if describing
line 1.) the room from the outside—while clearly inside it! It's as
• Or maybe the speaker is just so unhappy that even
though the speaker is a ghost watching themselves from
the littlest things, such as repeated sounds, annoy
outside their own body.
them.
Even more curiously, the speaker puts the word "two" in
Alternatively, this list of rooms might reflect a descent from parentheses, as if the fact that they have a roommate is an
happiness to unhappiness, or from excitement to boredom. afterthought. The speaker offers no further detail about the
Perhaps "Paris" is meant to evoke romance and glamour, roommate or about the relationship between the pair. Perhaps
"Geneva" a somewhat lesser glamour (or a neutral experience, this is a couple whose romance has gone dead, or perhaps "we
since Switzerland is famous for its political neutrality), and the (two)" refers to Mew and her dying sister, whom Mew lived
"damp room" a completely unromantic, unglamorous with and cared for. Regardless, the speaker feels so detached

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from life that they don't bother to specify. They don't move one syllables (lines 8-9) without punctuation, the poem inserts
around much, either: metaphorically
metaphorically, the two roommates "lie a comma toward the end of line 9, then a dash in the middle of
dead" in the room, whether from sickness, depression, line 10, then a full stop at the end of the poem. In other words: a
boredom, or other causes. soft caesur
caesuraa, then a stronger caesura, then a final end-stop
end-stop. The
Line 8 expands on this idea, while also expanding far beyond the poem seems to slowly brake to a halt, as if the speaker is
length of previous lines: spending their last energy—or falling back within limits.

Though every morning we seem to wake and might

just as well seem to sleep again
SYMBOLS

The line seems to go on and on without stopping; even when it ROOMS

breaks
breaks, it omits the comma that would normally follow "again." Unsurprisingly, rooms are a key symbol in "Rooms."
In other words, the form here mirrors the way the speaker's Because they're enclosed rather than open spaces,
dull life seems to go on and on, repeating the same cycle day they represent confinement and domesticity as opposed to
after day (much like the "ceaseless [...] tide" mentioned in line 5). freedom, wildness, etc. The speaker experiences these rooms
In fact, their life feels like a tedious dream: even when they as limiting, disappointing, tame settings and implicitly contrasts
wake, they only "seemseem to wake," and they're so listless that they them with the untamed outdoors (including the ocean "tide"). In
"might just as well seem to sleep again." The /s/ alliter
alliteration
ation many ways, the rooms of the poem seem more like cells. As if
(a.k.a. sibilance
sibilance) in this line adds to its soft, lulling sound: "sseem taking the symbolism to its extreme, the speaker ultimately
[...] seem [...] sleep." associates rooms with the grave—the final, total confinement of
LINES 9-10 death itself.

As we ... As living spaces, rooms also seem to stand for a transient and
... sun—in the rain. unstable mode of living. The speaker has inhabited a series of
mere rooms, not homes. (And those rooms have been in
Lines 9-10 close the poem with a metaphor about death. The
different countries—France, Switzerland, etc.—so they've
speaker remarks that they and their roommate "shall
clearly moved around a bit.)
somewhere," someday, lie just as listlessly as they do now:
Where this symbol appears in the poem:
[...] in the other quieter, dustier bed
Out there in the sun—in the rain. • Lines 1-10

This "bed," of course, is the grave. Notice that the adjectives

"quieter
er" and "dustier
er" imply that the speaker's current bed is THE SEA
already pretty quiet and dusty. Their room is already tomb-like The sea, or "tide," in lines 4-5 can be interpreted in a
and confining, and their life is deadly dull. Thus, the grave won't few different ways.
come as a total shock: it'll just represent a heightened version First, tides are cyclical, so they often symbolize repetition. It's
of their current experience! possible that the speaker finds the ocean's sound "maddening"
In a subtle iron
ironyy, the grave almost seems to represent a kind of because it echoes the repetitiveness of their own life.
escape for the cooped-up speaker. It's described not as a Par
arado
adoxically
xically, the sea is also an ancient symbol of time and
"room" but as a "bed"—one that will at least be outdoors rather change (due to the movement of tides, erosion of shores, etc.),
than indoors. The phrase "Out there in the sun" even sounds so the speaker may view it as a disturbing reminder that time is
pleasant! slipping by. Perhaps the "damp[ness]" and "seaweed smell" of
Still, this final image isn't exactly cheerful: the speaker ends by the room near the shore makes them feel as if their life is
noting that the grave will also be exposed to "the rain." And, of decaying or worn down. (Notice the references to death in the
course, rain or shine, the grave's inhabitants won't feel any following lines.) Tides can also flood or engulf things, so they
freedom. might correspond to the speaker's feeling of being
Following the overflow of lines 8-9, which completely threw off overwhelmed—metaphorically
metaphorically drowning.
the poem's already rough accentual meter, line 10 is terse and Finally, the sea represents the vast, untamed power of nature,
restrained (eight syllables, three strong stresses
stresses). Meanwhile, which the speaker implicitly contrasts with the small, tame
in this poem about "slowing down," the punctuation of these rooms in which they've spent their life. The tidal sound may be
final lines seems to slow down the language itself. After thirty- "maddening" because it evokes a power and freedom the

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speaker has never known.
• Line 10: “in the sun—in the rain.”
Where this symbol appears in the poem:
REPETITION
• Lines 4-5: “The little damp room with the seaweed smell,
/ And that ceaseless maddening sound of the tide—” The poem contains several forms of repetition
repetition, which help to
convey the repetitiveness and tedium of the speaker's life.
For example, the words "The room [...] the room [...] / The [...]
POETIC DEVICES room" repeat across a series of phrases in lines 3-4. This is an
example of par
parallel
allel structure (discussed in the Parallelism
PARALLELISM section), as well as an example of the special type of repetition
called anaphor
anaphoraa. It could also be classified as diacope
diacope, since the
The poem uses par
parallelism
allelism three times: first to create a list and
repetition occurs in quick succession, with only a few
then to create two antitheses
antitheses. Together, all this parallel
intervening words.
phrasing lends the poem a feeling of monotony that evokes the
repetitiveness of the speaker's life. Whatever readers call it, this repetitive language suggests the
dismal monotony of the speaker's existence as they move from
First, lines 3-4 present a succession of phrases beginning "The
room to room. Repetition makes these rooms seem to
room" or "The [...] room":
accumulate in an oppressive or overwhelming fashion. The
same word will appear in lines 6 and 7, adding to the effect. This
The room in Paris, the room at Geneva,
relentless repetition might even feel slightly "maddening" (line
The little damp room with the seaweed smell [...]
5), like the sound of the ocean and the speaker's experience in
general.
This structure (which is also an example of the device
anaphor
anaphoraa) allows the speaker, who is reminiscing about The phrases "seem to ___" (line 8) and "in the ___" (line 10)
"Rooms," to offer a series of examples in a clear, logical fashion. repeat as well, in contexts that involve repetitive cycles:
Line 6 then contains a minor instance of parallelism: the
antithetical phrase "for
for good or for ill." This is an old-fashioned, Though every morning we seem to wak
wakee and might
but still idiomatic
idiomatic, version of the expression "for better or for just as well seem to sleep again
worse."
The speaker and their roommate wake and sleep, wake and
In both of these examples, parallelism creates the sense that
sleep, so automatically and passionlessly that they might as well
specifics don't really matter to the speaker. The speaker is
be dead. In fact, they only "seem
seem to wake" and "seem
seem to sleep":
simply slotting different locations and scenarios into the same
they feel detached from their own experience, as if it's all an
linguistic structure; whether the room was in Paris or Geneva,
endless dream. They anticipate lying in their graves through the
and whether good or bad things happened there, readers get
repetitive cycles of nature: "in
in the sun—in
in the rain." Again, the
the sense that it's all the same to the speaker. This person's life
repeated words help bring their deadly boredom (or boring
has felt claustrophobic and disappointing time and time again.
deadness) to life.
Parallelism returns at the very end of the poem, in the form of
two phrases beginning with "in the" and set off by a dash: Where Repetition appears in the poem:

[...] Out there in the sun—in

in the rain. • Line 1: “rooms”
• Line 3: “The room,” “the room”
Again, parallelism allows for a direct antithesis, or juxtaposition • Line 4: “The,” “room”
of opposites. In the "quieter, dustier bed" of the grave (line 9), • Line 6: “Rooms”
the speaker and their roommate will sleep through both good • Line 7: “room”
weather and bad. The world will still have its ups and downs, • Line 8: “seem to,” “seem to”
but they won't matter anymore. Again, parallelism suggests • Line 10: “in the,” “in the”
that it's all the same to the speaker.
IMAGERY
Where P
Par
arallelism
allelism appears in the poem: "Rooms" is a poem that's as notable for withholding imagery as
for providing it. For example, the speaker never describes the
• Lines 3-4: “The room in Paris, the room at Geneva, / The
interior of their rooms in detail. Still, the few images the poem
little damp room with the seaweed smell,”
does provide are significant.
• Line 6: “for good,” “for ill”

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"The steady slowing down of the heart" (line 2) may be more of Notice that most of the important alliteration in the poem is
a metaphor than a literal image (i.e., the speaker's heartbeat is also sibilance (alliteration or consonance involving /s/ sounds).
only figur
figurativ
atively
ely slowing down). Still, the specificity of the Sibilance can help give poetic language a hushed, whispery, or
description, plus the heavy rhythmic emphasis (underscored by hissing sound, as it does here in line 5 (where it evokes the
alliter
alliteration
ation: "ssteady slowing"), makes the speaker's weariness murmur of the ocean waves) and line 8 (where it adds to the
more vivid than a straightforward phrase such as, "my gradual line's lulling, sleepy sound). In general, the prominence of
loss of energy." whispery /s/ sounds in "Rooms" contributes to the poem's
Lines 4-5 combine touch, smell, and sound imagery. Due to the ghostly atmosphere.
closeness of the ocean, the speaker's old room felt "damp,"
smelled like "seaweed," and reverberated all day long with the Where Alliter
Alliteration
ation appears in the poem:
"ceaseless maddening sound of the tide." It's clear the speaker • Line 1: “remember rooms,” “have had”
hated this room, and their imagery engages several senses at • Line 2: “steady slowing”
once in encouraging the reader to share that revulsion. • Line 4: “seaweed smell”
The poem's final imagery comes in its metaphorical description • Line 5: “ceaseless,” “sound”
of the grave: • Line 7: “where we”
• Line 8: “seem,” “seem,” “sleep”
[...] the other quieter, dustier bed
Out there in the sun—in the rain. METAPHOR
The poem uses several metaphors
metaphors, all of which relate to death
Pointedly, the speaker imagines this "bed" as only somewhat or loss of vitality. This figur
figurativ
ativee language helps capture the
more uncomfortable than their current one: not shockingly dreary, depressed state in which the speaker and their
quiet and dirty, just "quieter
er" and "dustier
er." With subtle iron
ironyy, roommate live.
the speaker also suggests that, in a way, the grave will be less
confining, since it's "Out there" in the elements. Still, this First, the speaker recalls "rooms that have had their part / In
imagery doesn't suggest a cheerful view of death—more like a the steady slowing down of the heart." Since rooms don't
grim view of the speaker's current life, which already feels literally slow people's heart rates, the speaker means,
tomb-like. figuratively, that some of the rooms they've lived in have
contributed to their feeling of lost energy and passion.
Where Imagery appears in the poem: The speaker also claims that "we (two) lie dead" in their current
room (line 7). As the subsequent lines make clear, this, too, is a
• Line 2: “the steady slowing down of the heart” metaphor. The two roommates are as listless and passionless as
• Lines 4-5: “The little damp room with the seaweed smell, if they were dead, but they're still awaiting literal death—which
/ And that ceaseless maddening sound of the tide—” the speaker doesn't believe will feel much different.
• Lines 9-10: “the other quieter, dustier bed / Out there
in the sun—in the rain.” Finally, the "other quieter, dustier bed" described in lines 9-10
is a metaphor for the grave. The adjectives "quieter er" and
"dustier
er" eerily imply that the roommates' current bed, in their
ALLITERATION
tomb-like room, is already pretty quiet and dusty. The silence
Alliter
Alliteration
ation is sprinkled throughout "Rooms" and reinforces the and dirt of the actual grave will just be a more intense version
meaning of important lines. of the same! There's also a metaphorical aspect to the fact that
In line 1, for example, alliteration bridges two this "bed" will lie under "the sun" and "the rain." These weather
words—"rremember" and "rrooms"—that establish the subject of conditions seem to represent the world's ongoing change or
the poem, which will be a reminiscence about living spaces (and, cycles of change, which the dead no longer experience.
by extension, life itself). Then, in line 2, alliteration links two
metrically stressed syllables ("sstead
teady slow
lowing"), adding further Where Metaphor appears in the poem:
emphasis and slowing down the line itself.
• Line 2: “ In the steady slowing down of the heart.”
In lines 4-5, alliteration emphasizes the room's "sseaweed smell" • Line 7: “where we (two) lie dead,”
and "cceaseless [...] sound" of crashing waves, underscoring what • Lines 9-10: “the other quieter, dustier bed / Out there
the speaker found so viscerally unpleasant about this place. in the sun—in the rain.”
And in line 8, alliteration (as well as assonance
assonance) links the
thematically important words "sseem" and "ssleep." This
CAESURA
speaker's waking life is so dull and unfulfilling that it only seems
like life—they might as well be sleeping through it! "Rooms" contains several clear examples of caesur
caesuraa. The poet

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uses these mid-line pauses for both rhythmic and dramatic Though every morning we seem to wake and might
effect. just as well seem to sleep again
The poem's first caesura comes in line 3, after "The room in As we shall somewhere in the other quieter, dustier
Paris." Thus, the first room the speaker describes is immediately bed
followed by a pause. It's as though the room itself has slowed
the line down, just as, according to line 2, rooms have Whether readers consider this line truly enjambed or not, the
"slow[ed]" the speaker's "heart" down! lack of punctuation does usher readers swiftly across the line
break—not coincidentally, into a line about the speaker's death.
A more dramatic caesura comes in line 6:
There's little separation, formally, between life and death in the
poem, which makes sense considering the fact that the speaker
Rooms where for good or for ill—things died.
already feels "dead." A clearer enjambment then follows at the
end of line 9, moving the reader quickly from "bed" to "Out
Here, the dash seems to indicate a slight hesitation, as if the
there."
speaker is weighing how to describe certain personal tragedies
before settling on the terse, indirect phrase "things died." Altogether, the poem's enjambments seem to reflect the
speaker's restlessness, as if the speaker feels as confined by
The comma toward the end of line 9 (after"quieter") marks the
their poem's structure as by their room. These long enjambed
first and only caesura in lines 8-9. Since these lines are much
lines might also evoke the tedium of the speaker's life—the way
longer than the others in the poem, the caesura here has the
time, in their room, seems to drag on endlessly. Finally, the lack
effect of slowing down the speaker's language, reining in their
of punctuation at the end of these long lines makes the full stop
restless thoughts as the end of the poem approaches.
in line 10 (the poem's shortest, and final, line) seem that much
The final caesura, in the final line, also packs a dramatic punch: more abrupt and chilling.

Out there in the sun—in the rain. Where Enjambment appears in the poem:

Just as "Out there in the sun" seems to offer some hope of • Lines 1-2: “part / In”
freedom and escape (albeit in the grave!), the speaker • Lines 8-9: “again / As”
hesitates, then grimly acknowledges that the grave will also lie • Lines 9-10: “bed / Out”
out "in the rain."

Where Caesur
Caesuraa appears in the poem: VOCABULARY
• Line 3: “Paris, the” Geneva (Line 3) - The second largest city in Switzerland.
• Line 6: “ill—things”
Ceaseless (Line 5) - Perpetual; unending.
• Line 9: “quieter, dustier”
• Line 10: “sun—in” Ill (Line 6) - Bad. "For good or for ill" means the same thing as
"for better or for worse."
ENJAMBMENT
The poem contains either two or three enjambments
enjambments, FORM, METER, & RHYME
depending on how strictly readers count. The first occurs in
lines 1-2: FORM
"Rooms" is a 10-line, single-stanza
stanza poem. While it does use
I remember rooms that have had their part
meter and rhrhyme
yme, the meter varies considerably (it's best
In the steady slowing down of the heart.
described as a kind of rough accentual verse; more on that in
the Meter section of this guide) and the rhrhyme
yme scheme is also
This effect helps draw the reader into the poem by creating a
rather unorthodox (more on that in Rhyme Scheme). The
minor moment of suspense (had their part in what?).
poem's line length also varies quite a bit; the shortest line (line
The lack of punctuation at the end of line 8 seems to indicate 10) has eight syllables, while the longest (line 8) has 19. In
that this phrase, too, is enjambed. That said, under standard other words, the poem doesn't follow the rules of any
grammatical rules, a comma (and thus a pause) would follow traditional form.
"again" to mark the conclusion of a clause. The poet is in fact
These formal choices serve the poem's meaning in a number of
using a run-on sentence that creates the appearance of
ways. Since they're unconventional, they might suggest that the
enjambment: speaker is indifferent to social conventions. (In many ways, the

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speaker seems to have given up on life, so maybe they're not RHYME SCHEME
too worried about keeping a strict pattern of meter or rhyme.) The poem's single stanza has an unusual rh
rhyme
yme pattern:
The unpredictable rhythm and rhymes might also reflect the
instability of the speaker's life (with its moves to various AABCDDEFEF
"rooms"), or even some instability in the speaker's mental state In other words, you could divide it into a rhymed couplet
(given the poem's hints of "mad[ness]" and despair). ("part"/"heart"), an unrhymed couplet ("Geneva"/"smell"),
They might also reflect the restlessness of a speaker who's another rhymed couplet ("tide"/"died") and a quatr
quatrain
ain with
spent their life cooped up in "rooms," or at least remembers alternating rhymes ("dead"/"again"/"bed"/"rain"). There's no
their life that way. It's helpful to know, in this context, that the name for this pattern; it seems improvised and organic, as if the
word stanza comes from an Italian word for "room." The poem speaker (or poet) doesn't want to be boxed into a rhyme
itself is confined to a single stanza, or room, and in a way, it tries scheme any more than they want to be trapped indoors.
to squeeze a whole life's experience into that cramped little All of the poem's rhymes are perfect, although the final rhyme
space. It also seems to rebel against its own formal parameters, pair—"again"/"rain"—might seem more or less exact depending
shifting in and out of rhyme and varying meter and line length on the reader's accent. Much like the wild metrical variations in
wildly—to the point where the long eighth line seems to be lines 8-9, the inclusion of two unrhymed lines (3-4) suggests
trying to break the pattern altogether! that the poet is to some degree rebelling against all the poem's
formal constraints. This makes even more sense when readers
METER realize that the word "stanza
stanza" comes from the Italian for
The poem's meter fluctuates along with its line length and "room." The poem may be confined to one stanza, but it's
rh
rhyme
yme pattern. Lines 1-7 contain about 10 syllables apiece and restless within that confinement!
might be categorized as four-beat accentual vverse
erse. That means
each line has roughly four strong stressed beats, but the
placement of those stressed beats varies from line to line: SPEAKER
The speaker of "Rooms" is a reticent, slightly mysterious, and
I remem
member rooms that have had their part
very unhappy figure.
In the stead
steady slow
slowing down of the heart
heart.
The room in Pararis, the room at Gene
neva, The speaker starts the poem by reminiscing ("I remember [...]"),
The lit
little damp room with the sea
seaweed smell
smell, but by the end, they've revealed very few personal details. They
never disclose their gender, age, nationality, occupation, and so
Even this pattern shifts around somewhat; for example, lines 6 on, nor do they give any hint as to the major events in their life.
and 7 could have four or five strong stresses apiece, depending They suggest that they've lost some earlier energy, vitality, or
on whether you read the phrases "things died" and "we (two)" passion, but they never explain why this happened or how
as having one strong stress or two. Here's one possible reading: rooms helped cause this "steady slowing down of the heart."
Most surprisingly, they never specify the nature of their
Rooms where for good or for ill
ill—things
things died
died. relationship with their current roommate, the other half of the
But there is the room where we (two
two) lie dead
dead, pair described as "we (two)."
The few details they do provide suggest the faint outlines of a
In lines 8-10, the pattern goes haywire. It's possible to read line personal narrative. The speaker has moved around a bit, in
8 as containing nine strong stresses, line 9 as containing seven, Europe and possibly elsewhere; they've lived in "Paris," France;
and line 10 as containing only three. The syllable count jumps "Geneva," Switzerland; and somewhere near or beside the sea
around, too, from 19 to 16 all the way down to eight: (the "sound of the tide"). They've experienced a series of losses;
"things died" in their former rooms. (Even here, it's not clear
Though every morn
morning we seem to wak
wakee and might whether people died or just things—hopes or relationships, for
just as well seem to sleep again
gain instance.) They now share a room with someone else, and both
As we shall somewhere in the oth
other qui
quieter, dust
dustier roommates feel terribly depressed or bored: metaphorically
metaphorically,
bed they "lie dead," and might as well be asleep when they're awake.
Out there in the sun
sun—in the rain
ain. This could be a couple that has lost all romantic passion, but it
could also be a pair like Charlotte Mew and her sister Anne,
Again, it's as if the speaker feels as confined by the poem's whom Mew nursed through terminal cancer during the last
structure as by their room and is still fighting it on some level year of Anne's life.
even as they seem to have given up. It's unclear how closely the speaker of "Rooms" is based on the
poet herself. The poem could be read either as autobiographical

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 Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com
or as a monologue in another character's voice (Mew wrote her poems are relatively traditional (they use both meter and
several such monologues throughout her career). The speaker rh
rhyme
yme); in others, they're experimental and idiosyncratic,
is so sparing with personal information that it's hard to say for incorporating unusual rhythms, syntax (word arrangement),
sure. For more biographical context, see the Context section of and personas. Her body of work was small—only about 70
this guide. poems in total—but it won acclaim from some of the major
writers of her time, including the poet Ezra Pound, the poet/
novelist Thomas Hardy, and the novelist Virginia Woolf.
SETTING "Rooms" was published in Mew's posthumous collection The
The setting of "Rooms" is—you guessed it—a series of rooms! Rambling Sailor (1929). This was effectively Mew's second
These are various places the speaker has lived in over the collection, following The Farmer's Bride in 1916 (which was
years, apparently while moving around Europe or the wider republished in expanded form as Saturday Market in 1921). It
world. For example, they've lived in "Paris," France, "Geneva," was assembled by Mew's friend Alida Monro after Mew died by
Switzerland, and someplace beside or near the sea: "The little suicide in 1928.
damp room with the seaweed smell, / And that ceaseless The poem's form and style reflect the era in which Mew wrote.
maddening sound of the tide." Though "Rooms" uses meter and rhyme—the tools that
As that last phrase suggests, the speaker wasn't necessarily dominated 19th-century poetry, as well as most English-
happy in these settings. If they enjoyed the beautiful, language poetry in earlier centuries—it uses them
glamorous cities of Paris and Geneva, they don't say so unconventionally, somewhat like the 20th-century Modernists.
explicitly. And they seem to have hated the room near the sea: Starting in the first decade of the 1900s, many English-
the sound of the waves drove them crazy (figuratively or language poets began straying from traditional meter and
literally). rhyme schemes or abandoning them altogether (writing in free
verse
erse). These experimental techniques helped define what is
The speaker's current setting is a room they live in with
now called "Modernist" poetry
poetry.
another person. The relationship between these two
characters is unclear: are they lovers? spouses? family? "Rooms" also contains two lines (8-9: "Though every [...] bed")
Regardless, they're so weary, listless, and/or depressed that that are much longer and looser than the others surrounding
they seem to "lie dead." Waking or sleeping, they feel so them; such variations were common in the Modernist verse of
detached from life that they might as well be in the grave—the Pound, T. S. Eliot, and others, but were highly unusual among
metaphorical "bed" or room they're headed toward. earlier generations of poets. In some ways, then, "Rooms" reads
like a poem of the Victorian or Edwardian era (the stretch of
The description of all these rooms is sparse or nonexistent, and
UK history from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s). In
that's part of the poem's point. The reader has no way of
other ways, it reads like a product of the decade in which it was
knowing how large these rooms were/are, what they looked
actually published: the 1920s, when Modernism flourished.
like, or whether they might have contributed in any way to the
speaker's unhappiness. In the end, they were rooms first and HISTORICAL CONTEXT
foremost: confined, domestic spaces as opposed to, say, the
"Rooms" doesn't explicitly refer to historical events or contain
wild outdoors. Something in the speaker's personality, life
any details that link it to a particular period. Still, the poem
experience, or social context seems to make them unhappy
subtly reflects the world Charlotte Mew lived in. Its reticence
regardless of their setting at any given time.
about personal details (e.g., the relationship between the
Finally, the poem isn't explicitly tied to any historical period; its speaker and their roommate) might partly reflect the
few concrete location markers are either centuries old (Paris repressive, buttoned-up Victorian culture in which she came of
and Geneva) or as old as the earth itself (the "ceaseless" tide). age. Since that culture was notably repressive toward women
As a result, the poem's setting and voice seem and queer people (Mew appears to have had same-sex
"timeless"—appropriately enough, since the speaker feels attractions), the poet's experience might inform the speaker's
detached from the ordinary world. In fact, the speaker feels feelings of confinement—their view of life as a series of dull
almost as if they're in the most timeless setting of all: the grave. "rooms."
Mew's suicide was an especially tragic ending to a life
shadowed by loss. Two of her brothers died when she was a
CONTEXT small child; another brother and a sister were committed to
LITERARY CONTEXT mental hospitals when she was in her 20s. Shortly before she
turned 30, her father died, leaving her family in financial
Charlotte Mew (1869-1928) was born in Victorian England trouble. Her mother died in 1923, and her last surviving, non-
and lived into the age of literary Modernism. In some respects, institutionalized family member, her sister Anne, died in 1927

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 Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com
after a bout with cancer. Mew lived with and nursed Anne • The PPoem
oem Out LLoud
oud — Listen to a reading of "Rooms."
during her illness, and she took her own life a year after Anne's (https:/
(https://www
/www..youtube.com/watch?v=giV_T
outube.com/watch?v=giV_TcZr7N4)
cZr7N4)
death.
• More b byy Mew — Browse original editions of Mew's work
For these reasons, some critics have read "Rooms" as an at the Internet Archive. (https:/
(https:///archiv
archive.org/
e.org/
autobiographical poem. Its terse remark that "things died" (line search.php?query=creator%3A%22Mew%2C+Charlotte+Mary
6) may stand in for a lifetime of losses, and particular details in
the poem can be linked with Mew's experience. For example, • A Meditation on Mew and More — An essay by Eavan
Boland that reflects on Mew's life and "the definitions of a
Mew did visit Paris (see line 3) at least once; reportedly, she
poet." (https:/
(https://www
/www.poetryfoundation.org/
.poetryfoundation.org/
hoped to pursue a romance with a female friend there, but her
poetrymagazine/articles/69033/islands-apart-a-
hopes were disappointed. And it's tempting to read the "two"
notebook)
who "lie dead" in line 7 as Anne and Charlotte herself: the one
dying of cancer, the other battling suicidal depression. But LITCHARTS ON OTHER CHARLOTTE MEW POEMS
because the poem's details are so sparse, and because Mew • The Farmer's Bride
was also known for her dramatic monologues (poems written in • The T
Trees
rees are Down
the voice of a character), it's hard to know how true to life
"Rooms" is.
HOW T
TO
O CITE
MORE RESOUR
RESOURCES
CES
MLA
EXTERNAL RESOURCES Allen, Austin. "Rooms." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 13 Dec 2021.
• Charlotte Mew's Life and WWork
ork — A biography of the poet Web. 21 Dec 2021.
at the Poetry Foundation.
CHICAGO MANUAL
(https:/
(https://www
/www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/charlotte-mew)
.poetryfoundation.org/poets/charlotte-mew)
Allen, Austin. "Rooms." LitCharts LLC, December 13, 2021.
• More About the PPoet
oet — A profile of Mew at the Modernist Retrieved December 21, 2021. https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/
Archives Publishing Project. charlotte-mew/rooms.
(https:/
(https://www
/www.modernistarchiv
.modernistarchives.com/person/charlotte-
es.com/person/charlotte-
mew)

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