The Youth Who Carried a Light
I SAW him pass as the new day dawned,Murmuring some musical phrase;Horses were drinking and floundering in the pond,And the tired stars thinned their gaze;Yet these were not the spectacles at all that he conned,But an inner one, giving out rays.
Such was the thing in his eye, walking there,The very and visible thing,A close light, displacing the gray of the morning air,And the tokens that the dark was taking wing;And was it not the radiance of a purpose rareThat might ripe to its accomplishing?
What became of that light? I wonder still its fate!Was it quenched ere its full apogee?Did it struggle frail and frailer to a beam emaciate?Did it thrive till matured in verity?Or did it travel on, to be a new young dreamer’s freight,And thence on infinitely?
Words in this poem
- emaciate v. i.
- To lose flesh gradually and become very lean; to waste away in flesh. [L. emaciatus, p. p. of emaciare to make lean; e + maciare to make lean or meager, fr. macies leanness, akin to macer lean. See Meager.]
- verity n.
- The quality or state of being true, or real; consonance of a statement, proposition, or other thing, with fact; truth; reality. [F. vérité, L. veritas, fr. verus true. See Very.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Youth Who Carried a Light is in the public domain. This text is taken from Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #3255; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hardy, The Youth Who Carried a Light, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/the-youth-who-carried-a-light.html, id L24164.
Form and metre
The Youth Who Carried a Light is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic trimeter.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 -ABABA dawned · phraseA · pondB · gazeA · connedB · raysA
- 2 ABABAB thereA · thingB · airA · wingB · rareA · accomplishingB
- 3 A-A-A- fateA · apogee · emaciateA · verity · freightA · infinitely
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I SAW him pass as the new day dawned, | 9 | ········· |
| Murmuring some musical phrase; | 8 | /˘˘·/˘˘· |
| Horses were drinking and floundering in the pond, | 11 | /˘·/˘·/˘··· |
| And the tired stars thinned their gaze; | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Yet these were not the spectacles at all that he conned, | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| But an inner one, giving out rays. | 9 | ··/˘·/˘·· |
| Such was the thing in his eye, walking there, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The very and visible thing, | 8 | ·/˘·/˘˘· |
| A close light, displacing the gray of the morning air, | 13 | ···˘/˘····/˘· |
| And the tokens that the dark was taking wing; | 11 | ··/˘····/˘· |
| And was it not the radiance of a purpose rare | 12 | ·····/˘··/˘· |
| That might ripe to its accomplishing? | 9 | ·····˘/˘˘ |
| What became of that light? I wonder still its fate! | 12 | ·˘/····/˘··· |
| Was it quenched ere its full apogee? | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Did it struggle frail and frailer to a beam emaciate? | 15 | ··/˘·······˘/˘· |
| Did it thrive till matured in verity? | 9 | ····˘/·/˘ |
| Or did it travel on, to be a new young dreamer’s freight, | 14 | ···/˘······/˘· |
| And thence on infinitely? | 7 | ···/˘˘˘ |
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.