Through the Long Days
Through the long days and yearsWhat will my loved one be,Parted from me?Through the long days and years.
Always as then she was,Loveliest, brightest, best,Blessing and blest,--Always as then she was.
Never on earth againShall I before her stand,Touch lip or hand,--Never on earth again.
But while my darling livesPeaceful I journey on,Not quite alone,Not while my darling lives.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Through the Long Days 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, Through the Long Days, in Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6062, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hay-pike-county/through-the-long-days.html, id L21634.
Form and metre
Through the Long Days is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABBA yearsA · beB · meB · yearsA
- 2 ABBA wasA · bestB · blestB · wasA
- 3 ABBA againA · standB · handB · againA
- 4 A--A livesA · on · alone · livesA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Through the long days and years | 6 | ······ |
| What will my loved one be, | 6 | ······ |
| Parted from me? | 4 | /˘·· |
| Through the long days and years. | 6 | ······ |
| Always as then she was, | 6 | /····· |
| Loveliest, brightest, best, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Blessing and blest,-- | 4 | /˘·· |
| Always as then she was. | 6 | /····· |
| Never on earth again | 6 | /˘··˘/ |
| Shall I before her stand, | 6 | ······ |
| Touch lip or hand,-- | 4 | ···· |
| Never on earth again. | 6 | /˘··˘/ |
| But while my darling lives | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Peaceful I journey on, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Not quite alone, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Not while my darling lives. | 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.