Written at the Age of Fourteen
Softly, softly blow, ye breezes,Gently o'er my Edwy fly!Lo! he slumbers, slumbers sweetly;Softly, zephyrs, pass him by!My love is asleep,He lies by the deep,All along where the salt waves sigh.
I have cover'd him with rushes,Water-flags, and branches dry.Edwy, long have been thy slumbers;My love is asleep,He lies by the deep,All along where the salt waves sigh.
Still he sleeps; he will not waken,Fastly closed is his eye;Paler is his cheek, and chillerThan the icy moon on high.Alas! he is dead,He has chose his death-bedAll along where the salt waves sigh.
Is it, is it so, my Edwy?Will thy slumbers never fly?Couldst thou think I would survive thee?No, my love, thou bid'st me die.Thou bid'st me seekThy death-bed bleakAll along where the salt waves sigh.
I will gently kiss thy cold lips,On thy breast I'll lay my head,And the winds shall sing our death dirge,And our shroud the waters spread;The moon will smile sweet,And the wild wave will beat,Oh! so softly o'er our lonely bed.
Words in this poem
- waken v. i.
- To wake; to cease to sleep; to be awakened. [OE. waknen, AS. wæcnan; akin to Goth. gawaknan. See Wake, v. i.]
- fastly adv.
- Firmly; surely.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- dirge n.
- A piece of music of a mournful character, to accompany funeral rites; a funeral hymn. [Contraction of Lat. dirige, direct thou (imperative of dirigere), the first word of a funeral hymn (Lat. transl. of Psalm v. 8) beginning, "Dirige, Domine, in c]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Written at the Age of Fourteen is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Henry Kirk White : With a Memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas, Project Gutenberg ebook #7149; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Kirke White, Written at the Age of Fourteen, in The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White (1803–1806), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7149, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kirke-white-poems/written-at-the-age-of-fourteen-2.html, id L10144.
Form and metre
Written at the Age of Fourteen is 34 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -A-ABBA breezes · flyA · sweetly · byA · asleepB · deepB · sighA
- 2 -A-BBA rushes · dryA · slumbers · asleepB · deepB · sighA
- 3 -A-ABBA waken · eyeA · chiller · highA · deadB · bedB · sighA
- 4 -AAABBA edwy · flyA · theeA · dieA · seekB · bleakB · sighA
- 5 -A-ABBA lips · headA · dirge · spreadA · sweetB · beatB · bedA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Softly, softly blow, ye breezes, | 8 | /˘/˘··/˘ |
| Gently o'er my Edwy fly! | 7 | /˘····· |
| Lo! he slumbers, slumbers sweetly; | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Softly, zephyrs, pass him by! | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| My love is asleep, | 5 | ···˘/ |
| He lies by the deep, | 5 | ····· |
| All along where the salt waves sigh. | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| I have cover'd him with rushes, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Water-flags, and branches dry. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Edwy, long have been thy slumbers; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| My love is asleep, | 5 | ···˘/ |
| He lies by the deep, | 5 | ····· |
| All along where the salt waves sigh. | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| Still he sleeps; he will not waken, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Fastly closed is his eye; | 6 | /˘···· |
| Paler is his cheek, and chiller | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Than the icy moon on high. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Alas! he is dead, | 5 | ˘/··· |
| He has chose his death-bed | 6 | ······ |
| All along where the salt waves sigh. | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| Is it, is it so, my Edwy? | 8 | ········ |
| Will thy slumbers never fly? | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Couldst thou think I would survive thee? | 8 | ·····˘/· |
| No, my love, thou bid'st me die. | 7 | ······· |
| Thou bid'st me seek | 4 | ···· |
| Thy death-bed bleak | 4 | ···· |
| All along where the salt waves sigh. | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| I will gently kiss thy cold lips, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| On thy breast I'll lay my head, | 7 | ······· |
| And the winds shall sing our death dirge, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| And our shroud the waters spread; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The moon will smile sweet, | 5 | ····· |
| And the wild wave will beat, | 6 | ······ |
| Oh! so softly o'er our lonely bed. | 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.