Farewell
Tie the strings to my life, my Lord,Then I am ready to go!Just a look at the horses --Rapid! That will do!
Put me in on the firmest side,So I shall never fall;For we must ride to the Judgment,And it's partly down hill.
But never I mind the bridges,And never I mind the sea;Held fast in everlasting raceBy my own choice and thee.
Good-by to the life I used to live,And the world I used to know;And kiss the hills for me, just once;Now I am ready to go!
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Farewell is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, Farewell, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/farewell.html, id L03814.
Form and metre
Farewell is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 6% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common 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.
- 3 -A-A bridges · seaA · race · theeA
- 4 -A-A live · knowA · once · goA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Tie the strings to my life, my Lord, | 8 | ········ |
| Then I am ready to go! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Just a look at the horses -- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Rapid! That will do! | 5 | /˘··· |
| Put me in on the firmest side, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| So I shall never fall; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| For we must ride to the Judgment, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And it's partly down hill. | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| But never I mind the bridges, | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| And never I mind the sea; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Held fast in everlasting race | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| By my own choice and thee. | 6 | ······ |
| Good-by to the life I used to live, | 9 | ········· |
| And the world I used to know; | 7 | ······· |
| And kiss the hills for me, just once; | 8 | ········ |
| Now I am ready to go! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
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.