The Wanderer from the Fold
How few, of all the hearts that loved,Are grieving for thee now;And why should mine to-night be movedWith such a sense of woe?
Too often thus, when left alone,Where none my thoughts can see,Comes back a word, a passing toneFrom thy strange history.
Sometimes I seem to see thee rise,A glorious child again;All virtues beaming from thine eyesThat ever honoured men:
Courage and truth, a generous breastWhere sinless sunshine lay:A being whose very presence blestLike gladsome summer-day.
O, fairly spread thy early sail,And fresh, and pure, and free,Was the first impulse of the galeWhich urged life's wave for thee!
Why did the pilot, too confiding,Dream o'er that ocean's foam,And trust in Pleasure's careless guidingTo bring his vessel home?
For well he knew what dangers frowned,What mists would gather, dim;What rocks and shelves, and sands lay roundBetween his port and him.
The very brightness of the sunThe splendour of the main,The wind which bore him wildly onShould not have warned in vain.
An anxious gazer from the shore--I marked the whitening wave,And wept above thy fate the moreBecause--I could not save.
It recks not now, when all is over:But yet my heart will beA mourner still, though friend and loverHave both forgotten thee!
Words in this poem
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- generous a.
- Of honorable birth or origin; highborn. [F. généreux, fr. L. generous of noble birth, noble, excellent, magnanimous, fr. genus birth, race: cf. It. generoso. See 2d Gender.]
- sinless a.
- Free from sin. Piers Plowman.
- 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.
- gladsome a.
- Pleased; joyful; cheerful.
- fairly adv.
- In a fairmanner; clearly; openly; plainly; fully; distinctly; frankly.
- confiding a.
- That confides; trustful; unsuspicious.
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
- whitening n.
- The act or process of making or becoming white.
- mourner n.
- One who mourns or is grieved at any misfortune, as the death of a friend.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wanderer from the Fold is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, Project Gutenberg ebook #1019; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, The Wanderer from the Fold, in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1019, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bronte-poems/the-wanderer-from-the-fold.html, id L13277.
Form and metre
The Wanderer from the Fold is 40 lines in 10 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 6 of its 10 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 32% 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.
- 2 A-A- aloneA · see · toneA · history
- 3 ABAB riseA · againB · eyesA · menB
- 4 ABAB breastA · layB · blestA · dayB
- 5 ABAB sailA · freeB · galeA · theeB
- 6 ABAB confidingA · foamB · guidingA · homeB
- 7 ABAB frownedA · dimB · roundA · himB
- 8 -A-A sun · mainA · on · vainA
- 9 ABAB shoreA · waveB · moreA · saveB
- 10 -A-A over · beA · lover · theeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How few, of all the hearts that loved, | 8 | ········ |
| Are grieving for thee now; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And why should mine to-night be moved | 8 | ········ |
| With such a sense of woe? | 6 | ······ |
| Too often thus, when left alone, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Where none my thoughts can see, | 6 | ······ |
| Comes back a word, a passing tone | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| From thy strange history. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Sometimes I seem to see thee rise, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| A glorious child again; | 7 | ·/˘˘·˘/ |
| All virtues beaming from thine eyes | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| That ever honoured men: | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Courage and truth, a generous breast | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Where sinless sunshine lay: | 6 | ·/˘/·· |
| A being whose very presence blest | 8 | ·/·/˘/˘· |
| Like gladsome summer-day. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| O, fairly spread thy early sail, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And fresh, and pure, and free, | 6 | ······ |
| Was the first impulse of the gale | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Which urged life's wave for thee! | 6 | ······ |
| Why did the pilot, too confiding, | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| Dream o'er that ocean's foam, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And trust in Pleasure's careless guiding | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| To bring his vessel home? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| For well he knew what dangers frowned, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| What mists would gather, dim; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| What rocks and shelves, and sands lay round | 8 | ········ |
| Between his port and him. | 6 | ······ |
| The very brightness of the sun | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The splendour of the main, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The wind which bore him wildly on | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Should not have warned in vain. | 6 | ······ |
| An anxious gazer from the shore-- | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| I marked the whitening wave, | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| And wept above thy fate the more | 8 | ········ |
| Because--I could not save. | 6 | ······ |
| It recks not now, when all is over: | 8 | ········ |
| But yet my heart will be | 6 | ······ |
| A mourner still, though friend and lover | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Have both forgotten thee! | 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.