Longing
Look westward o'er the steaming rain-washed slopes,Now satisfied with sunshine, and beholdThose lustrous clouds, as glorious as our hopes,Softened with feathery fleece of downy gold,In all fantastic, huddled shapes uprolled,Floating like dreams, and melting silently,In the blue upper regions of pure sky.
The eye is filled with beauty, and the heartRejoiced with sense of life and peace renewed;And yet at such an hour as this, upstartVague myriad longing, restless, unsubdued,And causeless tears from melancholy mood,Strange discontent with earth's and nature's best,Desires and yearnings that may find no rest.
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- myriad n.
- The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. [Gr. myriade.]
- causeless a.
- 1. Self-originating; uncreated.
- yearnings n.
- The maws, or stomachs, of young calves, used a rennet for curdling milk. [Cf. AS. geirnan, geyrnan, to rum. See 4th Earn.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Longing is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #3295; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emma Lazarus, Longing, in Poems, Volume I (1867–1887), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3295, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lazarus-poems/longing.html, id L01866.
Form and metre
Longing is 14 lines in 2 stanzas of 7 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% 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 ABABB-- slopesA · beholdB · hopesA · goldB · uprolledB · silently · sky
- 2 ABABBCC heartA · renewedB · upstartA · unsubduedB · moodB · bestC · restC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Look westward o'er the steaming rain-washed slopes, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Now satisfied with sunshine, and behold | 10 | ·/˘··/··˘/ |
| Those lustrous clouds, as glorious as our hopes, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·/· |
| Softened with feathery fleece of downy gold, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| In all fantastic, huddled shapes uprolled, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Floating like dreams, and melting silently, | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘˘ |
| In the blue upper regions of pure sky. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The eye is filled with beauty, and the heart | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Rejoiced with sense of life and peace renewed; | 10 | ˘/······˘/ |
| And yet at such an hour as this, upstart | 10 | ·····/··/· |
| Vague myriad longing, restless, unsubdued, | 10 | ·/˘˘/˘/˘·· |
| And causeless tears from melancholy mood, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘· |
| Strange discontent with earth's and nature's best, | 10 | ·˘˘/···/˘· |
| Desires and yearnings that may find no rest. | 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.