To a Traveller
The mountains, and the lonely death at lastUpon the lonely mountains: O strong friend!The wandering over, and the labour passed,Thou art indeed at rest:Earth gave thee of her best,That labour and this end.
Earth was thy mother, and her true son thou:Earth called thee to a knowledge of her ways,Upon the great hills, up the great streams: nowUpon earth's kindly breastThou art indeed at rest:Thou, and thine arduous days.
Fare thee well, O strong heart! The tranquil nightLooks calmly on thee: and the sun pours downHis glory over thee, O heart of might!Earth gives thee perfect rest:Earth, whom thy swift feet pressed:Earth, whom the vast stars crown.
Words in this poem
- arduous a.
- Steep and lofty, in a literal sense; hard to climb. [L. arduus steep, high; akin to Ir. ard high, height.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Traveller 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, To a Traveller, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/to-a-traveller.html, id L12486.
Form and metre
To a Traveller is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABACCB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 28% 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 ABACCB lastA · friendB · passedA · restC · bestC · endB
- 2 ABACCB thouA · waysB · nowA · breastC · restC · daysB
- 3 ABACCB nightA · downB · mightA · restC · pressedC · crownB
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 mountains, and the lonely death at last | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Upon the lonely mountains: O strong friend! | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The wandering over, and the labour passed, | 9 | ·/˘···/·· |
| Thou art indeed at rest: | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Earth gave thee of her best, | 6 | ······ |
| That labour and this end. | 6 | ·/···· |
| Earth was thy mother, and her true son thou: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Earth called thee to a knowledge of her ways, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Upon the great hills, up the great streams: now | 10 | ·········· |
| Upon earth's kindly breast | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Thou art indeed at rest: | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Thou, and thine arduous days. | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Fare thee well, O strong heart! The tranquil night | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Looks calmly on thee: and the sun pours down | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| His glory over thee, O heart of might! | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Earth gives thee perfect rest: | 6 | ···˘/· |
| Earth, whom thy swift feet pressed: | 6 | ······ |
| Earth, whom the vast stars crown. | 6 | ······ |
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.