Unanswered
How long ago it is since we went Maying!Since she and I went Maying long ago!--The years have left my forehead lined, I know,Have thinned my hair around the temples graying.Ah, time will change us: yea, I hear it saying--"She too grows old: the face of rose and snowHas lost its freshness: in the hair's brown glowSome strands of silver sadly, too, are straying.The form you knew, whose beauty so enspelled,Has lost the litheness of its loveliness:And all the gladness that her blue eyes heldTears and the world have hardened with distress."--"True! true!" I answer, "O ye years that part!These things are chaned--but is her heart, her heart?"
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- maying n.
- The celebrating of May Day.
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
- litheness n.
- The quality or state of being lithe; flexibility; limberness.
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Unanswered is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #7796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Madison Julius Cawein, Unanswered, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/unanswered.html, id L10975.
Form and metre
Unanswered is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDEE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAABBACDCDEE mayingA · agoB · knowB · grayingA · sayingA · snowB · glowB · strayingA · enspelledC · lovelinessD · heldC · distressD · partE · heartE
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| How long ago it is since we went Maying! | 11 | ··˘/·····/˘ |
| Since she and I went Maying long ago!-- | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| The years have left my forehead lined, I know, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Have thinned my hair around the temples graying. | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Ah, time will change us: yea, I hear it saying-- | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| "She too grows old: the face of rose and snow | 10 | ·········· |
| Has lost its freshness: in the hair's brown glow | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Some strands of silver sadly, too, are straying. | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/˘ |
| The form you knew, whose beauty so enspelled, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Has lost the litheness of its loveliness: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| And all the gladness that her blue eyes held | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Tears and the world have hardened with distress."-- | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| "True! true!" I answer, "O ye years that part! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| These things are chaned--but is her heart, her heart?" | 10 | ·········· |
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.