Faithless
The words you said grow faint;The lamp you lit burns dim;Yet, still be near your faithless friendTo urge and counsel him.
Still with returning feetTo where life's shadows brood,With steadfast eyes made clear in deathHaunt his vague solitude.
So he, beguiled with earth,Yet with its vain things vexed,Keep even to his own heart unknownYour memory unperplexed.
About this text
Faithless is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Listeners and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22569; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter de la Mare, Faithless, in The Listeners and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22569, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-listeners/faithless.html, id L17083.
Form and metre
Faithless is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.5 syllables. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in short 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.
- 1 -A-A faint · dimA · friend · himA
- 2 -A-A feet · broodA · death · solitudeA
- 3 -A-A earth · vexedA · unknown · unperplexedA
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 short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The words you said grow faint; | 6 | ······ |
| The lamp you lit burns dim; | 6 | ······ |
| Yet, still be near your faithless friend | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To urge and counsel him. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Still with returning feet | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| To where life's shadows brood, | 6 | ···/·· |
| With steadfast eyes made clear in death | 8 | ·/······ |
| Haunt his vague solitude. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| So he, beguiled with earth, | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Yet with its vain things vexed, | 6 | ······ |
| Keep even to his own heart unknown | 8 | ·/····˘/ |
| Your memory unperplexed. | 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.