Despondency
The thoughts that rain their steady glowLike stars on life’s cold sea,Which others know, or say they know,--They never shone for me.
Thoughts light, like gleams, my spirit’s sky,But they will not remain.They light me once, they hurry by,And never come again.
About this text
Despondency is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #54985; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Matthew Arnold, Despondency, in Poems (1849–1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #54985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/arnold-poems/despondency.html, id L07018.
Form and metre
Despondency is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB glowA · seaB · knowA · meB
- 2 ABAB skyA · remainB · byA · againB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The thoughts that rain their steady glow | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Like stars on life’s cold sea, | 6 | ······ |
| Which others know, or say they know,-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| They never shone for me. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Thoughts light, like gleams, my spirit’s sky, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But they will not remain. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| They light me once, they hurry by, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And never come again. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
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.