Distance
To the distance! Ah, the distance!Blue and broad and dim!Peace is not in burgh or meadow,But beyond the rim.
Aye, beyond it, far beyond it;Follow still my soul,Till this earth is lost in heaven,And thou feel'st the whole.
Words in this poem
- burgh n.
- A borough or incorporated town, especially, one in Scotland. [OE. See Burg.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Distance is in the public domain. This text is taken from Lyrics of Earth, Project Gutenberg ebook #12664; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Archibald Lampman, Distance, in Lyrics of Earth (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12664, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lampman-lyrics/distance.html, id L11099.
Form and metre
Distance is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.5 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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-A distance · dimA · meadow · rimA
- 2 -A-A it · soulA · heaven · wholeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To the distance! Ah, the distance! | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Blue and broad and dim! | 5 | ····· |
| Peace is not in burgh or meadow, | 8 | ······/· |
| But beyond the rim. | 5 | ····· |
| Aye, beyond it, far beyond it; | 8 | ········ |
| Follow still my soul, | 5 | /˘··· |
| Till this earth is lost in heaven, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And thou feel'st the whole. | 5 | ····· |
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.