To G. W
THE beach was crowded. Pausing now and then,He groped and fiddled doggedly along,His worn face glaring on the thoughtless throngThe stony peevishness of sightless men.He seemed scarce older than his clothes. Again,Grotesquing thinly many an old sweet song,So cracked his fiddle, his hand so frail and wrong,You hardly could distinguish one in ten.He stopped at last, and sat him on the sand,And, grasping wearily his bread-winner,Stared dim towards the blue immensity,Then leaned his head upon his poor old hand.He may have slept: he did not speak nor stir:His gesture spoke a vast despondency.
Words in this poem
- doggedly adv.
- In a dogged manner; sullenly; with obstinate resolution.
- glaring a.
- Clear; notorious; open and bold; barefaced; as, a glaring crime.
- sightless a.
- Wanting sight; without sight; blind.
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- cracked a.
- Coarsely ground or broken; as, cracked wheat.
- wearily adv.
- In a weary manner.
- immensity n.
- The state or quality of being immense; inlimited or immeasurable extension; infinity; vastness in extent or bulk; greatness. [L. immensitas: cf. F. immensité.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To G. W 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, To G. W, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/to-g-w.html, id L12373.
Form and metre
To G. W is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.8 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% 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 ABBAABBAC--C-- thenA · alongB · throngB · menA · againA · songB · wrongB · tenA · sandC · winner · immensity · handC · stir · despondency
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 |
|---|---|---|
| THE beach was crowded. Pausing now and then, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| He groped and fiddled doggedly along, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| His worn face glaring on the thoughtless throng | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The stony peevishness of sightless men. | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| He seemed scarce older than his clothes. Again, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Grotesquing thinly many an old sweet song, | 10 | ˘/˘/˘/···· |
| So cracked his fiddle, his hand so frail and wrong, | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| You hardly could distinguish one in ten. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| He stopped at last, and sat him on the sand, | 10 | ·········· |
| And, grasping wearily his bread-winner, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘··/˘ |
| Stared dim towards the blue immensity, | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Then leaned his head upon his poor old hand. | 10 | ·········· |
| He may have slept: he did not speak nor stir: | 10 | ·········· |
| His gesture spoke a vast despondency. | 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.