Beauty That Is Never Old
When buffeted and beaten by life's storms,When by the bitter cares of life oppressed,I want no surer haven than your arms,I want no sweeter heaven than your breast.
When over my life's way there falls the blightOf sunless days, and nights of starless skies;Enough for me, the calm and steadfast lightThat softly shines within your loving eyes.
The world, for me, and all the world can holdIs circled by your arms; for me there lies,Within the lights and shadows of your eyes,The only beauty that is never old.
Words in this poem
- sunless a.
- Destitute or deprived of the sun or its rays; shaded; shadowed.
- starless a.
- Being without stars; having no stars visible; as, a starless night.
- circled a.
- Having the form of a circle; round.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Beauty That Is Never Old is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fifty Years, & Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17884; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Weldon Johnson, Beauty That Is Never Old, in Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17884, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-fifty-years/beauty-that-is-never-old.html, id L08330.
Form and metre
Beauty That Is Never Old is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.7 syllables. 25% 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 -A-A storms · oppressedA · arms · breastA
- 2 ABAB blightA · skiesB · lightA · eyesB
- 3 ABBA holdA · liesB · eyesB · oldA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When buffeted and beaten by life's storms, | 9 | ·˘/·/˘··· |
| When by the bitter cares of life oppressed, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| I want no surer haven than your arms, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| I want no sweeter heaven than your breast. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| When over my life's way there falls the blight | 10 | ·········· |
| Of sunless days, and nights of starless skies; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Enough for me, the calm and steadfast light | 10 | ˘/·····/·· |
| That softly shines within your loving eyes. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The world, for me, and all the world can hold | 10 | ·········· |
| Is circled by your arms; for me there lies, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Within the lights and shadows of your eyes, | 10 | ·····/···· |
| The only beauty that is never old. | 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.