When I Was Twenty
It was June, and I was twenty.All my wisdom, poor but plenty,Never learned Festina lente.Youth is gone, but whither went he?
Madeline came down the orchardWith a mischief in her eye,Half demure and half inviting,Melting, wayward, wistful, shy.
Four bright eyes that found life lovely,And forgot to wonder why;Four warm lips at one love-lesson,Learned by heart so easily.
We gained something of that knowledgeNo man ever yet put by,But his after days of sorrowLeft him nothing but to die.
Madeline went up the orchard,Down the hurrying world went I;Now I know love has no morrow,Happiness no by-and-by.
Youth is gone, but whither went he?All my wisdom, poor but plenty,Never learned Festina lente.It was June, and I was twenty.
Words in this poem
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- demure v. i.
- To look demurely.
- inviting a.
- Alluring; tempting; as, an inviting amusement or prospect.
- wayward a.
- Taking one's own way; disobedient; froward; perverse; willful. [OE. weiward, for aweiward, i. e., turned away. See Away, and -ward.]
- wistful a.
- Longing; wishful; desirous. [For wishful; perhaps influenced by wistly, which is probably corrupted from OE. wisly certainly (from Icel. viss certain, akin to E. wit). See Wish.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
When I Was Twenty is in the public domain. This text is taken from More Songs From Vagabondia, Project Gutenberg ebook #18007; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bliss Carman, When I Was Twenty, in More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18007, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-vagabondia/when-i-was-twenty.html, id L24705.
Form and metre
When I Was Twenty is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 AAA- twentyA · plentyA · lenteA · he
- 2 -A-A orchard · eyeA · inviting · shyA
- 4 -A-A knowledge · byA · sorrow · dieA
- 5 -A-A orchard · iA · morrow · byA
- 6 -AAA he · plentyA · lenteA · twentyA
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| It was June, and I was twenty. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| All my wisdom, poor but plenty, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Never learned Festina lente. | 8 | /˘·˘···· |
| Youth is gone, but whither went he? | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Madeline came down the orchard | 8 | /˘˘···/˘ |
| With a mischief in her eye, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Half demure and half inviting, | 8 | ·˘/··˘/˘ |
| Melting, wayward, wistful, shy. | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Four bright eyes that found life lovely, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And forgot to wonder why; | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Four warm lips at one love-lesson, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Learned by heart so easily. | 8 | ·˘···/˘˘ |
| We gained something of that knowledge | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| No man ever yet put by, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| But his after days of sorrow | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Left him nothing but to die. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Madeline went up the orchard, | 8 | /˘˘···/˘ |
| Down the hurrying world went I; | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| Now I know love has no morrow, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Happiness no by-and-by. | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| Youth is gone, but whither went he? | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| All my wisdom, poor but plenty, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Never learned Festina lente. | 8 | /˘·˘···· |
| It was June, and I was twenty. | 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.