Companioned
I walked to-day, but not alone,Adown a windy, sea-girt lea,For memory, spendthrift of her charm,Peopled the silent lands for me.
The faces of old comradeshipIn golden youth were round my way,And in the keening wind I heardThe songs of many an orient day.
And to me called, from out the pinesAnd woven grasses, voices dear,As if from elfin lips should fallThe mimicked tones of yesteryear.
Old laughter echoed o'er the leasAnd love-lipped dreams the past had kept,From wayside blooms like honeyed beesTo company my wanderings crept.
And so I walked, but not alone,Right glad companionship had I,On that gray meadow waste betweenDim-litten sea and winnowed sky.
Words in this poem
- adown adv.
- From a higher to a lower situation; downward; down, to or on the ground. [OE. adun, adoun, adune. AS. of dune off the hill. See Down.]
- girt v. t.
- To gird; to encircle; to invest by means of a girdle; to measure the girth of; as, to girt a tree. [From Girt, n., cf. Girth, v.]
- peopled a.
- Stocked with, or as with, people; inhabited.
- comradeship n.
- The state of being a comrade; intimate fellowship.
- elfin a.
- Relating to elves.
- yesteryear n.
- The year last past; last year.
- wayside n.
- The side of the way; the edge or border of a road or path.
- honeyed a.
- Covered with honey.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Companioned is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Watchman and Other Poems (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1917; Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart, 1916), Internet Archive; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: L. M. Montgomery, Companioned, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/companioned.html, id L29436.
Form and metre
Companioned is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 -A-A alone · leaA · charm · meA
- 2 -A-A comradeship · wayA · heard · dayA
- 3 -A-A pines · dearA · fall · yesteryearA
- 4 ABAB leasA · keptB · beesA · creptB
- 5 -A-A alone · iA · between · skyA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I walked to-day, but not alone, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Adown a windy, sea-girt lea, | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| For memory, spendthrift of her charm, | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| Peopled the silent lands for me. | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| The faces of old comradeship | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| In golden youth were round my way, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And in the keening wind I heard | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The songs of many an orient day. | 9 | ···/·/˘·· |
| And to me called, from out the pines | 8 | ········ |
| And woven grasses, voices dear, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| As if from elfin lips should fall | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The mimicked tones of yesteryear. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Old laughter echoed o'er the leas | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And love-lipped dreams the past had kept, | 8 | ········ |
| From wayside blooms like honeyed bees | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| To company my wanderings crept. | 8 | ·/˘·/˘˘· |
| And so I walked, but not alone, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Right glad companionship had I, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| On that gray meadow waste between | 8 | ···/···· |
| Dim-litten sea and winnowed sky. | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
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.