The Old Man's Farewell
Farewell, my pilgrim guest, farewell,A few days since thou wert unknown,None shall thy future fortunes tell,But sweetly have the moments flown!
And kindness, like the sun on flowers,Soon chas'd away thy tender gloom;New-fledg'd the sable-pinion'd hours,And wove bright tints in Fancy's loom.
We sought no secrets to divine,Neither thy name nor lineage knew,Our hearts alone have question'd thine,And found that all was just and true.
Pass not with hasty step, I pray,Across the threshold of my door!But pause awhile, with kind delay,We shall behold thy face no more!
Once only in a hundred years,The aloe's precious blossoms swell,So, in thy presence it appears,That Time has blossom'd, fare thee well!
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- sable n.
- A carnivorous animal of the Weasel family (Mustela zibellina) native of the northern latitudes of Europe, Asia, and America, -- noted for its fine, soft, and valuable fur. [OF. sable, F. zibeline sable (in sense 4), LL. sabellum; cf. D. sabel, Dan. sabel, zobel, Sw. sabel, sobel, G. zobel; all fr. Russ. sóbole.]
- wove
- p. pr. & rare vb. n. of Weave.
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Old Man's Farewell is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #9998; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Matilda Betham, The Old Man's Farewell, in Poems (1808), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9998, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/betham-poems/the-old-man-s-farewell.html, id L23528.
Form and metre
The Old Man's Farewell is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 farewellA · unknownB · tellA · flownB
- 2 ABAB flowersA · gloomB · hoursA · loomB
- 3 ABAB divineA · knewB · thineA · trueB
- 4 ABAB prayA · doorB · delayA · moreB
- 5 ABAB yearsA · swellB · appearsA · wellB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Farewell, my pilgrim guest, farewell, | 8 | ·/·/˘··/ |
| A few days since thou wert unknown, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| None shall thy future fortunes tell, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| But sweetly have the moments flown! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And kindness, like the sun on flowers, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Soon chas'd away thy tender gloom; | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| New-fledg'd the sable-pinion'd hours, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| And wove bright tints in Fancy's loom. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| We sought no secrets to divine, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Neither thy name nor lineage knew, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Our hearts alone have question'd thine, | 8 | /·˘/·/˘· |
| And found that all was just and true. | 8 | ········ |
| Pass not with hasty step, I pray, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Across the threshold of my door! | 8 | ˘/·/···· |
| But pause awhile, with kind delay, | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| We shall behold thy face no more! | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Once only in a hundred years, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The aloe's precious blossoms swell, | 8 | ·/·/˘/˘· |
| So, in thy presence it appears, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| That Time has blossom'd, fare thee well! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
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.