The Wayfarers I
Young man with the keen blue eyes,Clear and bold!Why, as thou dost fare,With so searching air,Scannest thou each face thou dost behold,Each small flower, faint-coloured like the skies,Growing by the way? Why gazest thouO’er the round hill’s brow?
“Ah, in every bearded face,Looking deep,My heart’s friend seek I!In each maiden shyMy heart’s dearest, dreamed upon in sleep;And in each fair flower a hope I trace;And the hill may hide the flashing seaThat doth call to me!”
Words in this poem
- coloured a.
- Having color; tinged; dyed; painted; stained.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wayfarers I is in the public domain. This text is taken from A chant of love for England, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #71425; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Helen Gray Cone, The Wayfarers I, in A Chant of Love for England, and Other Poems (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #71425, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cone-chant-for-england/the-wayfarers-i.html, id L22079.
Form and metre
The Wayfarers I is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABCCBADD.
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 ABCCBADD eyesA · boldB · fareC · airC · beholdB · skiesA · thouD · browD
- 2 ABCCBADD faceA · deepB · iC · shyC · sleepB · traceA · seaD · meD
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Young man with the keen blue eyes, | 7 | ······· |
| Clear and bold! | 3 | ··· |
| Why, as thou dost fare, | 5 | ····· |
| With so searching air, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Scannest thou each face thou dost behold, | 9 | /˘·····˘/ |
| Each small flower, faint-coloured like the skies, | 10 | ··/˘·/˘··· |
| Growing by the way? Why gazest thou | 9 | /˘······· |
| O’er the round hill’s brow? | 5 | ····· |
| “Ah, in every bearded face, | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| Looking deep, | 3 | /˘· |
| My heart’s friend seek I! | 5 | ····· |
| In each maiden shy | 5 | ··/˘· |
| My heart’s dearest, dreamed upon in sleep; | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| And in each fair flower a hope I trace; | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| And the hill may hide the flashing sea | 9 | ······/˘· |
| That doth call to me!” | 5 | ····· |
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.