The Same Continued
Once hardly in a cycle blossomethA flower-like soul ripe with the seeds of song,A spirit fore-ordained to cope with wrong,Whose divine thoughts are natural as breath,Who the old Darkness thickly scatterethWith starry words, that shoot prevailing lightInto the deeps, and wither, with the blightOf serene Truth, the coward heart of Death:Woe, if such spirit thwart its errand high,And mock with lies the longing soul of man!Yet one age longer must true Culture lie,Soothing her bitter fetters as she can,Until new messages of love outstartAt the next beating of the infinite Heart.
The love of all things springs from love of one;Wider the soul's horizon hourly grows,And over it with fuller glory flowsThe sky-like spirit of God; a hope begunIn doubt and darkness 'neath a fairer sunCometh to fruitage, if it be of Truth;And to the law of meekness, faith, and ruth,By inward sympathy, shall all be won:This thou shouldst know, who, from the painted featureOf shifting Fashion, couldst thy brethren turnUnto the love of ever-youthful Nature,And of a beauty fadeless and eterne;And always 'tis the saddest sight to seeAn old man faithless in Humanity.
A poet cannot strive for despotism;His harp falls shattered; for it still must beThe instinct of great spirits to be free,And the sworn foes of cunning barbarism:He, who has deepest searched the wide abysmOf that life-giving Soul which men call fate,Knows that to put more faith in lies and hateThan truth and love is the true atheism:Upward the soul forever turns her eyes;The next hour always shames the hour before;One beauty, at its highest, prophesiesThat by whose side it shall seem mean and poor;No God-like thing knows aught of less and less,But widens to the boundless Perfectness.
Therefore think not the Past is wise alone,For Yesterday knows nothing of the Best,And thou shalt love it only as the nestWhence glory-wingèd things to Heaven have flown:To the great Soul alone are all things known;Present and future are to her as past,While she in glorious madness doth forecastThat perfect bud, which seems a flower full-blownTo each new Prophet, and yet always opesFuller and fuller with each day and hour,Heartening the soul with odor of fresh hopes,And longings high, and gushings of wide power,Yet never is or shall be fully blownSave in the forethought of the Eternal One.
Words in this poem 17
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- outstart v. i.
- To start out or up.
- hourly a.
- Happening or done every hour; occurring hour by hour; frequent; often repeated; renewed hour by hour; continual.
- fruitage n.
- Fruit, collectively; fruit, in general; fruitery. [F. fruitage.]
- meekness n.
- The quality or state of being meek.
- ruth n.
- Sorrow for the misery of another; pity; tenderness. [From Rue, v.: cf. Icel. hryggedh, hrygedh.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- fadeless a.
- Not liable to fade; unfading.
- abysm n.
- An abyss; a gulf. [OF. abisme; F. abime, LL. abyssimus, a superl. of L. abyssus; Gr. Abyss.]
- atheism n.
- The disbelief or denial of the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being. [Cf. F. athéisme. See Atheist.]
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- perfectness n.
- The quality or state of being perfect; perfection.
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- 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.]
- forecast v. t.
- To plan beforehand; to scheme; to project.
- forethought a.
- Thought of, or planned, beforehand; aforethought; prepense; hence, deliberate.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Same Continued is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of James Russell Lowell With biographical sketch by Nathan Haskell Dole, Project Gutenberg ebook #38520; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Russell Lowell, The Same Continued, in Poems (1844–1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lowell-james-russell-poems/the-same-continued.html, id L13752.
Form and metre
The Same Continued is 56 lines in 4 stanzas of 14 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 12 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% 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 ABBAACCADEDEFF blossomethA · songB · wrongB · breathA · scatterethA · lightC · blightC · deathA · highD · manE · lieD · canE · outstartF · heartF
- 2 ABBAACCA-D-D-- oneA · growsB · flowsB · begunA · sunA · truthC · ruthC · wonA · feature · turnD · nature · eterneD · see · humanity
- 3 ABBA-CCAD-D-EE despotismA · beB · freeB · barbarismA · abysm · fateC · hateC · atheismA · eyesD · before · prophesiesD · poor · lessE · perfectnessE
- 4 ABBAACCADEDEA- aloneA · bestB · nestB · flownA · knownA · pastC · forecastC · blownA · opesD · hourE · hopesD · powerE · blownA · one
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Once hardly in a cycle blossometh | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| A flower-like soul ripe with the seeds of song, | 10 | ·/········ |
| A spirit fore-ordained to cope with wrong, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| Whose divine thoughts are natural as breath, | 10 | ·˘/··/˘˘·· |
| Who the old Darkness thickly scattereth | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| With starry words, that shoot prevailing light | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Into the deeps, and wither, with the blight | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of serene Truth, the coward heart of Death: | 10 | ·˘/··/˘··· |
| Woe, if such spirit thwart its errand high, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And mock with lies the longing soul of man! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Yet one age longer must true Culture lie, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Soothing her bitter fetters as she can, | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Until new messages of love outstart | 10 | ···/˘˘··˘/ |
| At the next beating of the infinite Heart. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The love of all things springs from love of one; | 10 | ·········· |
| Wider the soul's horizon hourly grows, | 10 | /˘··˘/˘/˘· |
| And over it with fuller glory flows | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| The sky-like spirit of God; a hope begun | 10 | ···/····˘/ |
| In doubt and darkness 'neath a fairer sun | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Cometh to fruitage, if it be of Truth; | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| And to the law of meekness, faith, and ruth, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| By inward sympathy, shall all be won: | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| This thou shouldst know, who, from the painted feature | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Of shifting Fashion, couldst thy brethren turn | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Unto the love of ever-youthful Nature, | 11 | ·····/˘/˘/˘ |
| And of a beauty fadeless and eterne; | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| And always 'tis the saddest sight to see | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| An old man faithless in Humanity. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| A poet cannot strive for despotism; | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/˘·˘ |
| His harp falls shattered; for it still must be | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The instinct of great spirits to be free, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And the sworn foes of cunning barbarism: | 11 | ·····/˘/˘·˘ |
| He, who has deepest searched the wide abysm | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Of that life-giving Soul which men call fate, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Knows that to put more faith in lies and hate | 10 | ·········· |
| Than truth and love is the true atheism: | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| Upward the soul forever turns her eyes; | 10 | /˘··˘/˘··· |
| The next hour always shames the hour before; | 10 | ··//˘··/·· |
| One beauty, at its highest, prophesies | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| That by whose side it shall seem mean and poor; | 10 | ·········· |
| No God-like thing knows aught of less and less, | 10 | ·········· |
| But widens to the boundless Perfectness. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| Therefore think not the Past is wise alone, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| For Yesterday knows nothing of the Best, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And thou shalt love it only as the nest | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Whence glory-wingèd things to Heaven have flown: | 10 | ·/˘···/˘·· |
| To the great Soul alone are all things known; | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Present and future are to her as past, | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| While she in glorious madness doth forecast | 10 | ···/˘/˘·/· |
| That perfect bud, which seems a flower full-blown | 10 | ·/·····/·· |
| To each new Prophet, and yet always opes | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| Fuller and fuller with each day and hour, | 11 | /˘·/˘····/˘ |
| Heartening the soul with odor of fresh hopes, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| And longings high, and gushings of wide power, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Yet never is or shall be fully blown | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Save in the forethought of the Eternal One. | 11 | ···/···˘/˘· |
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.