Expectation
Roll on, O shining sun,To the far seas!Bring down, ye shades of eve,The soft, salt breeze!Shine out, O stars, and lightMy darling's pathway bright,As through the summer nightShe comes to me.
No beam of any starCan match her eyes;Her smile the bursting dayIn light outvies.Her voice--the sweetest thingHeard by the raptured springWhen waking wild-woods ring--She comes to me.
Ye stars, more swiftly wheelO'er earth's still breast;More wildly plunge and reelIn the dim west!The earth is lone and lorn,Till the glad day be born,Till with the happy mornShe comes to me.
Words in this poem
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- lorn a.
- Lost; undone; ruined. [Strong p. p. of Lose. See Lose, Forlorn.]
- 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
Expectation is in the public domain. This text is taken from Pike County Ballads and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #6062; 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 Hay, Expectation, in Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6062, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hay-pike-county/expectation.html, id L21598.
Form and metre
Expectation is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 -A-ABBB- sun · seasA · eve · breezeA · lightB · brightB · nightB · me
- 2 ----AAA- star · eyes · day · outvies · thingA · springA · ringA · me
- 3 ABABCCC- wheelA · breastB · reelA · westB · lornC · bornC · mornC · me
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Roll on, O shining sun, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To the far seas! | 4 | ···· |
| Bring down, ye shades of eve, | 6 | ······ |
| The soft, salt breeze! | 4 | ···· |
| Shine out, O stars, and light | 6 | ······ |
| My darling's pathway bright, | 6 | ·/˘/·· |
| As through the summer night | 6 | ···/˘· |
| She comes to me. | 4 | ···· |
| No beam of any star | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Can match her eyes; | 4 | ···· |
| Her smile the bursting day | 6 | ···/˘· |
| In light outvies. | 3 | ··· |
| Her voice--the sweetest thing | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Heard by the raptured spring | 6 | ···/˘· |
| When waking wild-woods ring-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| She comes to me. | 4 | ···· |
| Ye stars, more swiftly wheel | 6 | ···/˘· |
| O'er earth's still breast; | 4 | ···· |
| More wildly plunge and reel | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| In the dim west! | 4 | ···· |
| The earth is lone and lorn, | 6 | ······ |
| Till the glad day be born, | 6 | ······ |
| Till with the happy morn | 6 | ···/˘· |
| She comes to me. | 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.