Beyond the Years
Beyond the years the answer lies,Beyond where brood the grieving skiesAnd Night drops tears.Where Faith rod-chastened smiles to riseAnd doff its fears,And carping Sorrow pines and dies--Beyond the years.
Beyond the years the prayer for restShall beat no more within the breast;The darkness clears,And Morn perched on the mountain's crestHer form uprears--The day that is to come is best,Beyond the years.
Beyond the years the soul shall findThat endless peace for which it pined,For light appears,And to the eyes that still were blindWith blood and tears,Their sight shall come all unconfinedBeyond the years.
Words in this poem
- chastened a.
- Corrected; disciplined; refined; purified; toned down. Sir. W.
- doff v. t.
- To put off, as dress; to divest one's self of; hence, figuratively, to put or thrust away; to rid one's self of. And made us doff our easy robes of peace. [Do + off. See Do, v. t., 7.]
- carping a.
- Fault-finding; censorious caviling. See Captious.
- 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,]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Beyond the Years is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, Beyond the Years, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/beyond-the-years.html, id L00526.
Form and metre
Beyond the Years is 21 lines in 3 stanzas of 7 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.3 syllables. 33% 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 AABABAB liesA · skiesA · tearsB · riseA · fearsB · diesA · yearsB
- 2 AABABAB restA · breastA · clearsB · crestA · uprearsB · bestA · yearsB
- 3 AABABAB findA · pinedA · appearsB · blindA · tearsB · unconfinedA · yearsB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Beyond the years the answer lies, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Beyond where brood the grieving skies | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And Night drops tears. | 4 | ···· |
| Where Faith rod-chastened smiles to rise | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And doff its fears, | 4 | ···· |
| And carping Sorrow pines and dies-- | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Beyond the years. | 4 | ···· |
| Beyond the years the prayer for rest | 8 | ········ |
| Shall beat no more within the breast; | 8 | ········ |
| The darkness clears, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And Morn perched on the mountain's crest | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Her form uprears-- | 4 | ···· |
| The day that is to come is best, | 8 | ········ |
| Beyond the years. | 4 | ···· |
| Beyond the years the soul shall find | 8 | ········ |
| That endless peace for which it pined, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| For light appears, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| And to the eyes that still were blind | 8 | ········ |
| With blood and tears, | 4 | ···· |
| Their sight shall come all unconfined | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Beyond the years. | 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.