We learn in the retreating
We learn in the retreatingHow vast an oneWas recently among us.A perished sun
Endears in the departureHow doubly moreThan all the golden presenceIt was before!
Words in this poem
- departure n.
- Division; separation; putting away. [From Depart.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
We learn in the retreating 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, We learn in the retreating, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/we-learn-in-the-retreating.html, id L19041.
Form and metre
We learn in the retreating is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 -A-A retreating · oneA · us · sunA
- 2 -A-A departure · moreA · presence · beforeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We learn in the retreating | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| How vast an one | 4 | ···· |
| Was recently among us. | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| A perished sun | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Endears in the departure | 7 | ˘/··˘/˘ |
| How doubly more | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Than all the golden presence | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| It was before! | 4 | ···· |
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.