Here, ever since you went abroad
Here, ever since you went abroad,If there be change, no change I see,I only walk our wonted road,The road is only walkt by me.
Yes; I forgot; a change there is;Was it of that you bade me tell?I catch at times, at times I missThe sight, the tone, I know so well.
Only two months since you stood here!Two shortest months! then tell me whyVoices are harsher than they were,And tears are longer ere they dry.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- wonted a.
- Accustomed; customary; usual.
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Here, ever since you went abroad is in the public domain. This text is taken from Imaginary Conversations and Poems: A Selection, Project Gutenberg ebook #21628; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter Savage Landor, Here, ever since you went abroad, in Imaginary Conversations and Poems (1795–1863), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21628, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/landor-poems/here-ever-since-you-went-abroad.html, id L12189.
Form and metre
Here, ever since you went abroad is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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 abroad · seeA · road · meA
- 2 -A-A is · tellA · miss · wellA
- 3 -A-A here · whyA · were · dryA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Here, ever since you went abroad, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| If there be change, no change I see, | 8 | ········ |
| I only walk our wonted road, | 8 | ·/˘·//˘· |
| The road is only walkt by me. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Yes; I forgot; a change there is; | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Was it of that you bade me tell? | 8 | ········ |
| I catch at times, at times I miss | 8 | ········ |
| The sight, the tone, I know so well. | 8 | ········ |
| Only two months since you stood here! | 8 | /˘······ |
| Two shortest months! then tell me why | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Voices are harsher than they were, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| And tears are longer ere they dry. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
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.