Stanzas
Farewell, Life! My senses swim,And the world is growing dim;Thronging shadows cloud the light,Like the advent of the night,--Colder, colder, colder still,Upward steals a vapor chill--Strong the earthy odor grows--I smell the mould above the rose!
Welcome, Life! the Spirit strives!Strength returns, and hope revives;Cloudy fears and shapes forlornFly like shadows at the morn,--O'er the earth there comes a bloom--Sunny light for sullen gloom,Warm perfume for vapor cold--smell the rose above the mould!
Words in this poem
- mould n.
- Crumbling, soft, friable earth; esp., earth containing the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil. [OE. molde, AS. molde; akin to D. mul, G. mull, mulm, OHG. molt, molta, Icel. mold, Dan. muld, Sw. mull, Goth. mulda, and E. meal flour. See Meal, and cf. Mole a]
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- 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.]
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Stanzas is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood, Project Gutenberg ebook #15652; 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 Hood, Stanzas, in The Song of the Shirt, and Other Poems (1826–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15652, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poetical-works/stanzas-2.html, id L20120.
Form and metre
Stanzas is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCCDD. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 AABBCCDD swimA · dimA · lightB · nightB · stillC · chillC · growsD · roseD
- 2 AABBCCDD strivesA · revivesA · forlornB · mornB · bloomC · gloomC · coldD · mouldD
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Farewell, Life! My senses swim, | 7 | ·/··/˘· |
| And the world is growing dim; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Thronging shadows cloud the light, | 7 | /˘/···· |
| Like the advent of the night,-- | 7 | ··/···· |
| Colder, colder, colder still, | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Upward steals a vapor chill-- | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Strong the earthy odor grows-- | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| I smell the mould above the rose! | 8 | ········ |
| Welcome, Life! the Spirit strives! | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Strength returns, and hope revives; | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Cloudy fears and shapes forlorn | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| Fly like shadows at the morn,-- | 7 | ··/···· |
| O'er the earth there comes a bloom-- | 7 | ······· |
| Sunny light for sullen gloom, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Warm perfume for vapor cold-- | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| smell the rose above the mould! | 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.