Experience
The burden of the long gone years: the weight,The lifeless weight, of miserable thingsDone long ago, not done with: the live stingsLeft by old joys, follies provoking fate,Showing their sad side, when it is too late:Dread burden, that remorseless knowledge bringsTo men, remorseful! But the burden clings:And that remorse declares that bitter state.
Wisdom of ages! Wisdom of old age!Written, and spoken of, and prophesied,The common record of humanity!Oh, vain! The springtime is our heritageFirst, and the sunlight on the flowing tide:Then, that old truth's confirming misery.
Words in this poem
- remorseless a.
- Being without remorse; having no pity; hence, destitute of sensibility; cruel; insensible to distress; merciless.
- remorseful a.
- Full of remorse.
- springtime n.
- The season of spring; springtide.
- heritage a.
- That which is inherited, or passes from heir to heir; inheritance. [OE. heritage, eritage, OF. heritage, eritage, F. héritage, fr. hériter to inherit, LL. heriditare. See Hereditable.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Experience is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #66520; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lionel Johnson, Experience, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/experience.html, id L12551.
Form and metre
Experience is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 ABBAABBA weightA · thingsB · stingsB · fateA · lateA · bringsB · clingsB · stateA
- 2 AB-AB- ageA · prophesiedB · humanity · heritageA · tideB · misery
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 burden of the long gone years: the weight, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The lifeless weight, of miserable things | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘· |
| Done long ago, not done with: the live stings | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Left by old joys, follies provoking fate, | 10 | ····/˘˘/˘· |
| Showing their sad side, when it is too late: | 10 | /˘········ |
| Dread burden, that remorseless knowledge brings | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| To men, remorseful! But the burden clings: | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| And that remorse declares that bitter state. | 10 | ··˘/˘/·/˘· |
| Wisdom of ages! Wisdom of old age! | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Written, and spoken of, and prophesied, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| The common record of humanity! | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Oh, vain! The springtime is our heritage | 11 | ···/··/˘/˘˘ |
| First, and the sunlight on the flowing tide: | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Then, that old truth's confirming misery. | 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.