A Dedication (To E. G.) I
Sometimes youth comes to age and asks a blessing,Or counsel, or a tale of old estate,Yet youth will still be curiously guessingThe old man’s thought when death is at his gate;For all their courteous words they are not one,This youth and age, but civil strangers still,Age with the best of all his seasons done,Youth with his face towards the upland hill.Age looks for rest while youth runs far and wide,Age talks with death, which is youth’s very fear,Age knows so many comrades who have died,Youth burns that one companion is so dear.So, with good will, and in one house, may dwellThese two, and talk, and all be yet to tell.
Words in this poem
- curiously adv.
- In a curious manner.
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Dedication (To E. G.) I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, 1908-1919, Project Gutenberg ebook #51575; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Drinkwater, A Dedication (To E. G.) I, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/a-dedication-to-e-g-i.html, id L23082.
Form and metre
A Dedication (To E. G.) I is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other English sonnets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG blessingA · estateB · guessingA · gateB · oneC · stillD · doneC · hillD · wideE · fearF · diedE · dearF · dwellG · tellG
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sometimes youth comes to age and asks a blessing, | 11 | ˘/·······/˘ |
| Or counsel, or a tale of old estate, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Yet youth will still be curiously guessing | 11 | ·····/˘˘˘/˘ |
| The old man’s thought when death is at his gate; | 10 | ·········· |
| For all their courteous words they are not one, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| This youth and age, but civil strangers still, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Age with the best of all his seasons done, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Youth with his face towards the upland hill. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Age looks for rest while youth runs far and wide, | 10 | ·········· |
| Age talks with death, which is youth’s very fear, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Age knows so many comrades who have died, | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| Youth burns that one companion is so dear. | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| So, with good will, and in one house, may dwell | 10 | ·········· |
| These two, and talk, and all be yet to tell. | 10 | ·········· |
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.