Expostulation and Reply
“Why William, on that old grey stone,“Thus for the length of half a day,“Why William, sit you thus alone,“And dream your time away?
“Where are your books? that light bequeath’d“To beings else forlorn and blind!“Up! Up! and drink the spirit breath’d“From dead men to their kind.
“You look round on your mother earth,“As if she for no purpose bore you;“As if you were her first-born birth,“And none had lived before you!”
One morning thus, by Esthwaite lake,When life was sweet I knew not why,To me my good friend Matthew spake,And thus I made reply.
“The eye it cannot chuse but see,“We cannot bid the ear be still;“Our bodies feel, where’er they be,“Against, or with our will.
“Nor less I deem that there are powers,“Which of themselves our minds impress,“That we can feed this mind of ours,“In a wise passiveness.
“Think you, mid all this mighty sum“Of things for ever speaking,“That nothing of itself will come,“But we must still be seeking?
“--Then ask not wherefore, here, alone,“Conversing as I may,“I sit upon this old grey stone,“And dream my time away.”
Words in this poem
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- deem v. t.
- To decide; to judge; to sentence; to condemn. [OE. demen to judge, condemn, AS. d, fr. d doom; akin to OFries. d, OS. ad, D. doemen, OHG. tuommen, Icel. dæma, Sw. dömma, Dan. dömme, Goth. d. See Doom, n., an]
- passiveness n.
- The quality or state of being passive; unresisting submission.
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Expostulation and Reply is in the public domain. This text is taken from Lyrical Ballads, With a Few Other Poems (1798), Project Gutenberg ebook #9622; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Wordsworth, Expostulation and Reply, in Lyrical Ballads (1798), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9622, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lyrical-ballads/expostulation-and-reply.html, id L02862.
Form and metre
Expostulation and Reply is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 7 of its 8 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.7 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 9% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB stoneA · dayB · aloneA · awayB
- 2 -A-A bequeath'd · blindA · breath'd · kindA
- 3 ABAB earthA · youB · birthA · youB
- 4 ABAB lakeA · whyB · spakeA · replyB
- 5 ABAB seeA · stillB · beA · willB
- 6 ABAB powersA · impressB · oursA · passivenessB
- 7 ABAB sumA · speakingB · comeA · seekingB
- 8 ABAB aloneA · mayB · stoneA · awayB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| “Why William, on that old grey stone, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| “Thus for the length of half a day, | 8 | ········ |
| “Why William, sit you thus alone, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| “And dream your time away? | 6 | ····˘/ |
| “Where are your books? that light bequeath’d | 8 | ······˘/ |
| “To beings else forlorn and blind! | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| “Up! Up! and drink the spirit breath’d | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| “From dead men to their kind. | 6 | ······ |
| “You look round on your mother earth, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| “As if she for no purpose bore you; | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| “As if you were her first-born birth, | 8 | ········ |
| “And none had lived before you!” | 8 | ····˘··· |
| One morning thus, by Esthwaite lake, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| When life was sweet I knew not why, | 8 | ········ |
| To me my good friend Matthew spake, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And thus I made reply. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| “The eye it cannot chuse but see, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| “We cannot bid the ear be still; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| “Our bodies feel, where’er they be, | 9 | //˘·˘˘/·· |
| “Against, or with our will. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| “Nor less I deem that there are powers, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| “Which of themselves our minds impress, | 8 | ··˘//·˘/ |
| “That we can feed this mind of ours, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| “In a wise passiveness. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| “Think you, mid all this mighty sum | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| “Of things for ever speaking, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| “That nothing of itself will come, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| “But we must still be seeking? | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| “--Then ask not wherefore, here, alone, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| “Conversing as I may, | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| “I sit upon this old grey stone, | 8 | ········ |
| “And dream my time away.” | 6 | ····˘/ |
On this poem
Notes from the edition 2
Notes credited “[Hutchinson]” are Thomas Hutchinson’s, from his edition Lyrical Ballads 1798 (Duckworth, 3rd ed. 1920; Internet Archive lyricalballads00worduoft), keyed to his own line numbers within each poem (the Ancyent Marinere numbered continuously 1-658 across all seven Parts). Notes credited “[W. Wordsworth, 1798]” are the poet’s own five footnotes printed in the site’s own source text (Project Gutenberg #9622).
- Stanza 3, line 1 Coleridge’s own note (Oct. 28, 1803, expanded in The Friend, 1818): ‘To find no contradiction in the union of old and new, to contemplate the ANCIENT OF DAYS with feelings as fresh as if they then sprang forth at His own fiat ... to combine the child’s sense of wonder and novelty with the appearances which every day for perhaps forty years had rendered familiar — this is the character and privilege of genius.’ [Hutchinson]
- Stanza 6, line 1 Nor less I deem that there are Powers. Cf. Kilchurn Castle, ll. 6-9: ‘Oh! there is life that breathes not; Powers there are / That touch each other to the quick in modes / Which the gross world no sense hath to perceive, / No soul to dream of.’ [Hutchinson]
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