After
LIKE as a flamelet blanketed in smoke,So through the anæsthetic shows my life;So flashes and so fades my thought, at strifeWith the strong stupor that I heave and chokeAnd sicken at, it is so foully sweet.Faces look strange from space—and disappear.Far voices, sudden loud, offend my ear—And hush as sudden. Then my senses fleet:All were a blank, save for this dull, new painThat grinds my leg and foot; and brokenlyTime and the place glimpse on to me again;And, unsurprised, out of uncertainty,I wake—relapsing—somewhat faint and fain,To an immense, complacent dreamery.
Words in this poem
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- sicken v. t.
- To make sick; to disease.
- foully v.
- In a foul manner; filthily; nastily; shamefully; unfairly; dishonorably.
- brokenly adv.
- In a broken, interrupted manner; in a broken state; in broken language.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
After is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1568; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. E. Henley, After, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/after.html, id L12327.
Form and metre
After is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBACDDCE-E-E- smokeA · lifeB · strifeB · chokeA · sweetC · disappearD · earD · fleetC · painE · brokenly · againE · uncertainty · fainE · dreamery
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| LIKE as a flamelet blanketed in smoke, | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| So through the anæsthetic shows my life; | 10 | ·········· |
| So flashes and so fades my thought, at strife | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| With the strong stupor that I heave and choke | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And sicken at, it is so foully sweet. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Faces look strange from space—and disappear. | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| Far voices, sudden loud, offend my ear— | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| And hush as sudden. Then my senses fleet: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| All were a blank, save for this dull, new pain | 10 | ·········· |
| That grinds my leg and foot; and brokenly | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Time and the place glimpse on to me again; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And, unsurprised, out of uncertainty, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| I wake—relapsing—somewhat faint and fain, | 10 | ··˘/˘//··· |
| To an immense, complacent dreamery. | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
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.