By Christoph August Tiedge
"Whither, thou turbid wave?Whither, with so much haste,As if a thief wert thou?"
"I am the Wave of Life,Stained with my margin's dust;From the struggle and the strifeOf the narrow stream I flyTo the Sea's immensity,To wash from me the slimeOf the muddy banks of Time."
Words in this poem
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- immensity n.
- The state or quality of being immense; inlimited or immeasurable extension; infinity; vastness in extent or bulk; greatness. [L. immensitas: cf. F. immensité.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
By Christoph August Tiedge is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Project Gutenberg ebook #1365; 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 Wadsworth Longfellow, By Christoph August Tiedge, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/by-christoph-august-tiedge.html, id L18053.
Form and metre
By Christoph August Tiedge is 10 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.4 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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.
- 2 A-A--BB lifeA · dust · strifeA · fly · immensity · slimeB · timeB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "Whither, thou turbid wave? | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Whither, with so much haste, | 6 | /˘···· |
| As if a thief wert thou?" | 6 | ······ |
| "I am the Wave of Life, | 6 | ······ |
| Stained with my margin's dust; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| From the struggle and the strife | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Of the narrow stream I fly | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| To the Sea's immensity, | 7 | ···˘/˘˘ |
| To wash from me the slime | 6 | ······ |
| Of the muddy banks of Time." | 7 | ··/˘··· |
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.