Yesterday and To-Morrow
Yesterday I held your hand,Reverently I pressed it,And its gentle yieldingnessFrom my soul I blessed it.
But to-day I sit alone,Sad and sore repining;Must our gold forever knowFlames for the refining?
Yesterday I walked with you,Could a day be sweeter?Life was all a lyric songSet to tricksy meter.
Ah, to-day is like a dirge,--Place my arms around you,Let me feel the same dear joyAs when first I found you.
Let me once retrace my steps,From these roads unpleasant,Let my heart and mind and soulAll ignore the present.
Yesterday the iron searedAnd to-day means sorrow.Pause, my soul, arise, arise,Look where gleams the morrow.
Words in this poem
- reverently adv.
- In a reverent manner; in respectful regard.
- tricksy a.
- Exhibiting artfulness; trickish. [From Trick.]
- dirge n.
- A piece of music of a mournful character, to accompany funeral rites; a funeral hymn. [Contraction of Lat. dirige, direct thou (imperative of dirigere), the first word of a funeral hymn (Lat. transl. of Psalm v. 8) beginning, "Dirige, Domine, in c]
- retrace v. t.
- To trace back, as a line. [Pref. re- + trace: cf. F. retracer. Cf. Retract.]
- ignore v. t.
- To be ignorant of or not acquainted with. [L. ignorare; pref. in- not + the root of gnarus knowing, noscere to become acquainted with. See Know, and cf. Narrate.]
- seared a.
- Scorched; cauterized; hence, figuratively, insensible; not susceptible to moral influences.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Yesterday and To-Morrow 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, Yesterday and To-Morrow, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/yesterday-and-to-morrow.html, id L00851.
Form and metre
Yesterday and To-Morrow is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 hand · itA · yieldingness · itA
- 2 -A-A alone · repiningA · know · refiningA
- 3 -A-A you · sweeterA · song · meterA
- 4 -A-A dirge · youA · joy · youA
- 5 -A-A steps · unpleasantA · soul · presentA
- 6 -A-A seared · sorrowA · arise · morrowA
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Yesterday I held your hand, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Reverently I pressed it, | 8 | /˘˘˘··˘· |
| And its gentle yieldingness | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| From my soul I blessed it. | 7 | ·····˘· |
| But to-day I sit alone, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Sad and sore repining; | 6 | ······ |
| Must our gold forever know | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Flames for the refining? | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| Yesterday I walked with you, | 8 | /˘···˘·· |
| Could a day be sweeter? | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Life was all a lyric song | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Set to tricksy meter. | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Ah, to-day is like a dirge,-- | 7 | ······· |
| Place my arms around you, | 6 | ······ |
| Let me feel the same dear joy | 7 | ······· |
| As when first I found you. | 6 | ······ |
| Let me once retrace my steps, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| From these roads unpleasant, | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| Let my heart and mind and soul | 7 | ······· |
| All ignore the present. | 6 | ·˘/·/˘ |
| Yesterday the iron seared | 8 | /˘··/˘·˘ |
| And to-day means sorrow. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Pause, my soul, arise, arise, | 7 | ···˘/˘/ |
| Look where gleams the morrow. | 6 | ····/˘ |
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.