Youth and Time
Once, I remember, the world was young;The rills rejoiced with a silver tongue;The field-lark sat in the wheat and sang;The thrush’s shout in the woodland rang;The cliffs and the perilous sands afarWere softened to mist by the morning star;For Youth was with me (I know it now!),And a light shone out from his wreathèd brow.He turned the fields to enchanted ground,He touched the rains with a dreamy sound.
But alas, he vanished, and Time appeared,The Spirit of Ages, old and weird.He crushed and scattered my beamy wings;He dragged me forth from the court of kings;He gave me doubt and a bloom of beard,This Spirit of Ages, old and weird.The wonder went from the field of corn,The glory died on the craggy horn;And suddenly all was strange and gray,And the rocks came out on the trodden way.
I hear no more the wild thrush sing:He is silent now on the peach aswing.Something is gone from the house of mirth--Something is gone from the hills of Earth.Time hurries me on with a wizard hand;He turns the Earth to a homeless land;He stays my life with a stingy breath,And darkens its depths with foreknowledge of death;Calls memories back on their path apace;Sends desperate thoughts to the soul’s dim place.
Time murders our youth with his sorrow and sin,And pushes us on to the windowless inn.
Words in this poem
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
- beamy a.
- Emitting beams of light; radiant; shining.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- aswing adv.
- In a state of swinging.
- hurries n.
- A staith or framework from which coal is discharged from cars into vessels.
- homeless a.
- Destitute of a home. [AS.hamleas.]
- apace adv.
- With a quick pace; quick; fast; speedily. [Pref. a- + pace. OE. a pas at a walk, in which a is the article. See Pace.]
- desperate a.
- Without hope; given to despair; hopeless. [L. desperatus, p. p. of desperare. See Despair, and cf. Desperado.]
- windowless a.
- Destitute of a window. Carlyle.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Youth and Time is in the public domain. This text is taken from The man with the hoe, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #67012; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Markham, Youth and Time, in The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #67012, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/markham-man-with-hoe/youth-and-time.html, id L24773.
Form and metre
Youth and Time is 32 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABBCCDDEE, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%).
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 AABBCCDDEE youngA · tongueA · sangB · rangB · afarC · starC · nowD · browD · groundE · soundE
- 2 AABBAACCDD appearedA · weirdA · wingsB · kingsB · beardA · weirdA · cornC · hornC · grayD · wayD
- 3 AABBCCDDEE singA · aswingA · mirthB · earthB · handC · landC · breathD · deathD · apaceE · placeE
- 4 AA sinA · innA
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, I remember, the world was young; | 9 | ··˘/˘···· |
| The rills rejoiced with a silver tongue; | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| The field-lark sat in the wheat and sang; | 9 | ········· |
| The thrush’s shout in the woodland rang; | 9 | ·/˘···/·· |
| The cliffs and the perilous sands afar | 10 | ····/˘˘·˘/ |
| Were softened to mist by the morning star; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| For Youth was with me (I know it now!), | 9 | ········· |
| And a light shone out from his wreathèd brow. | 9 | ········· |
| He turned the fields to enchanted ground, | 10 | ··˘···˘/˘· |
| He touched the rains with a dreamy sound. | 10 | ··˘····/˘· |
| But alas, he vanished, and Time appeared, | 10 | ·˘/·/˘··˘/ |
| The Spirit of Ages, old and weird. | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| He crushed and scattered my beamy wings; | 10 | ··˘·/˘·/˘· |
| He dragged me forth from the court of kings; | 10 | ··˘······· |
| He gave me doubt and a bloom of beard, | 9 | ········· |
| This Spirit of Ages, old and weird. | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| The wonder went from the field of corn, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| The glory died on the craggy horn; | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| And suddenly all was strange and gray, | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| And the rocks came out on the trodden way. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I hear no more the wild thrush sing: | 8 | ········ |
| He is silent now on the peach aswing. | 10 | ··/˘····˘/ |
| Something is gone from the house of mirth-- | 9 | /˘······· |
| Something is gone from the hills of Earth. | 9 | /˘······· |
| Time hurries me on with a wizard hand; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| He turns the Earth to a homeless land; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| He stays my life with a stingy breath, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And darkens its depths with foreknowledge of death; | 11 | ·/˘···˘/˘·· |
| Calls memories back on their path apace; | 10 | ·/˘˘····˘/ |
| Sends desperate thoughts to the soul’s dim place. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Time murders our youth with his sorrow and sin, | 11 | ·/˘/···/˘·· |
| And pushes us on to the windowless inn. | 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.