Wapentake, to Alfred Tennyson
Poet! I come to touch thy lance with mine;Not as a knight, who on the listed fieldOf tourney touched his adversary's shieldIn token of defiance, but in signOf homage to the mastery, which is thine,In English song; nor will I keep concealed,And voiceless as a rivulet frost-congealed,My admiration for thy verse divine.Not of the howling dervishes of song,Who craze the brain with their delirious dance,Art thou, O sweet historian of the heart!Therefore to thee the laurel-leaves belong,To thee our love and our allegiance,For thy allegiance to the poet's art.
Words in this poem
- tourney v. i.
- To perform in tournaments; to tilt. [Cf.OF. torneier. See Tourney, n.]
- voiceless a.
- Having no voice, utterance, or vote; silent; mute; dumb.
- admiration n.
- Wonder; astonishment. [F., fr. L. admiratio. See Admire.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Wapentake, to Alfred Tennyson 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, Wapentake, to Alfred Tennyson, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/to-alfred-tennyson.html, id L17769.
Form and metre
Wapentake, to Alfred Tennyson is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDECDE, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 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 Italian sonnets, 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 ABBAABBACDECDE mineA · fieldB · shieldB · signA · thineA · concealedB · congealedB · divineA · songC · danceD · heartE · belongC · allegianceD · artE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Poet! I come to touch thy lance with mine; | 10 | /˘········ |
| Not as a knight, who on the listed field | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Of tourney touched his adversary's shield | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘· |
| In token of defiance, but in sign | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Of homage to the mastery, which is thine, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| In English song; nor will I keep concealed, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| And voiceless as a rivulet frost-congealed, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘˘·˘/ |
| My admiration for thy verse divine. | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| Not of the howling dervishes of song, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| Who craze the brain with their delirious dance, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Art thou, O sweet historian of the heart! | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Therefore to thee the laurel-leaves belong, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| To thee our love and our allegiance, | 11 | ··/˘··/˘˘/˘ |
| For thy allegiance to the poet's art. | 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.