Never-To-Be
Down by the waters of the sea,Reigns the King of Never-to-be.His palace walls are black with night;His torches star and moonès light,And for his timepiece deep and graveBeats on the green unhastening wave.
Windswept are his high corridors;His pleasance the sea-mantled shores;For sentinel a shadow standsWith hair in heaven, and cloudy hands;And round his bed, king's guards to be,Watch pines in iron solemnity.
His hound is mute; his steed at willRoams pastures deep with asphodel;His queen is to her slumber gone;His courtiers mute lie, hewn in stone;He hath forgot where he did hideHis sceptre in the mountain-side.
Grey-capped and muttering, mad is he--The childless King of Never-to-be;For all his people in the deepKeep everlasting fast asleep;And all his realm is foam and rain,Whispering of what comes not again.
Words in this poem
- timepiece n.
- A clock, watch, or other instrument, to measure or show the progress of time; a chronometer.
- pleasance n.
- Pleasure; merriment; gayety; delight; kindness. [F. plaisance. See Please.]
- steed n.
- A horse, especially a spirited horse for state of war; -- used chiefly in poetry or stately prose. [OE. stede, AS. steda a stud-horse, war horse, fr. stod a stud of breeding steeds; akin to G. stute a mare, Icel. stedda, sto, a stud. *163. See Stud of horses.]
- asphodel n.
- A general name for a plant of the genus Asphodelus. The asphodels are hardy perennial plants, several species of which are cultivated for the beauty of their flowers. [L. asphodelus, Gr. Daffodil.]
- sceptre n.
- A staff or baton borne by a sovereign, as a ceremonial badge or emblem of authority; a royal mace. [F. sceptre, L. sceptrum, from Gr. shaft. See Shaft, and cf. Scape a stem, shaft.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Never-To-Be 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, Never-To-Be, in The Listeners and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22569, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-listeners/never-to-be.html, id L17099.
Form and metre
Never-To-Be is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABBCC, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 3 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 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 AABBCC seaA · beA · nightB · lightB · graveC · waveC
- 2 --AA-- corridors · shores · standsA · handsA · be · solemnity
- 3 ----AA will · asphodel · gone · stone · hideA · sideA
- 4 AABBCC heA · beA · deepB · asleepB · rainC · againC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Down by the waters of the sea, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Reigns the King of Never-to-be. | 7 | ····/·· |
| His palace walls are black with night; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| His torches star and moonès light, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And for his timepiece deep and grave | 8 | ···/···· |
| Beats on the green unhastening wave. | 9 | ········· |
| Windswept are his high corridors; | 7 | /····/˘ |
| His pleasance the sea-mantled shores; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| For sentinel a shadow stands | 7 | ·/˘·/·· |
| With hair in heaven, and cloudy hands; | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| And round his bed, king's guards to be, | 8 | ········ |
| Watch pines in iron solemnity. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| His hound is mute; his steed at will | 8 | ········ |
| Roams pastures deep with asphodel; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| His queen is to her slumber gone; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| His courtiers mute lie, hewn in stone; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| He hath forgot where he did hide | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| His sceptre in the mountain-side. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Grey-capped and muttering, mad is he-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The childless King of Never-to-be; | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| For all his people in the deep | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Keep everlasting fast asleep; | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| And all his realm is foam and rain, | 8 | ········ |
| Whispering of what comes not again. | 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.