Passage
When you deliberate the pageOf Alexander’s pilgrimage,Or say--“It is three years, or ten,Since Easter slew Connolly’s men,”Or prudently to judgment comeOf Antony or Absalom,And think how duly are designedCase and instruction for the mind,Remember then that also we,In a moon’s course, are history.
Words in this poem
- pilgrimage n.
- The journey of a pilgrim; a long journey; especially, a journey to a shrine or other sacred place. Fig., the journey of human life. [OE. pilgrimage, pelgrinage; cf. F. pèlerinage.]
- prudently adv.
- In a prudent manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Passage 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, Passage, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/passage.html, id L23009.
Form and metre
Passage is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 80% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABBCCDD-- pageA · pilgrimageA · tenB · menB · comeC · absalomC · designedD · mindD · we · history
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When you deliberate the page | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Of Alexander’s pilgrimage, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Or say--“It is three years, or ten, | 8 | ········ |
| Since Easter slew Connolly’s men,” | 8 | ·/˘·/˘˘· |
| Or prudently to judgment come | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Of Antony or Absalom, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘˘ |
| And think how duly are designed | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Case and instruction for the mind, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Remember then that also we, | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| In a moon’s course, are history. | 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.