The Pilgrims
An uphill path, sun-gleams between the showers,Where every beam that broke the leaden skyLit other hills with fairer ways than ours;Some clustered graves where half our memories lie;And one grim Shadow creeping ever nigh:And this was Life.
Wherein we did another's burden seek,The tired feet we helped upon the road,The hand we gave the weary and the weak,The miles we lightened one another's load,When, faint to falling, onward yet we strode:This too was Life.
Till, at the upland, as we turned to goAmid fair meadows, dusky in the night,The mists fell back upon the road below;Broke on our tired eyes the western light;The very graves were for a moment bright:And this was Death.
Words in this poem
- uphill adv.
- Upwards on, or as on, a hillside; as, to walk uphill.
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Pilgrims is in the public domain. This text is taken from In Flanders Fields, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #353; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John McCrae, The Pilgrims, in In Flanders Fields, and Other Poems (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mccrae-flanders/the-pilgrims.html, id L17056.
Form and metre
The Pilgrims is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 11% 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 ABABB- showersA · skyB · oursA · lieB · nighB · life
- 2 ABABB- seekA · roadB · weakA · loadB · strodeB · life
- 3 ABABB- goA · nightB · belowA · lightB · brightB · death
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 |
|---|---|---|
| An uphill path, sun-gleams between the showers, | 11 | ·//······/˘ |
| Where every beam that broke the leaden sky | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Lit other hills with fairer ways than ours; | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Some clustered graves where half our memories lie; | 10 | ·/˘···//˘· |
| And one grim Shadow creeping ever nigh: | 10 | ···/·/˘/˘· |
| And this was Life. | 4 | ···· |
| Wherein we did another's burden seek, | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| The tired feet we helped upon the road, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The hand we gave the weary and the weak, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The miles we lightened one another's load, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| When, faint to falling, onward yet we strode: | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| This too was Life. | 4 | ···· |
| Till, at the upland, as we turned to go | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Amid fair meadows, dusky in the night, | 10 | ˘/·/·/˘··· |
| The mists fell back upon the road below; | 10 | ·········· |
| Broke on our tired eyes the western light; | 10 | ··//˘··/˘· |
| The very graves were for a moment bright: | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And this was Death. | 4 | ···· |
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.