My Legacy
My friend has gone away from meFrom shadow into perfect light,But leaving a sweet legacy.
My heart shall hold it long in fee—A grand ideal, calm and bright,A song of hope for ministry,
A faith of unstained purity,A thought of beauty for delight—These did my friend bequeath to me;
And, more than even these can be,The worthy pattern of a white,Unmarred life lived most graciously.
Dear comrade, loyal thanks to theeWho now hath fared beyond my sight,My friend has gone away from me,But leaving a sweet legacy.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- bequeath v. t.
- To give or leave by will; to give by testament; -- said especially of personal property. [OE. biquethen, AS. becwe to say, affirm, bequeath; pref. be- + cwe to say, speak. See Quoth.]
- graciously adv.
- In a gracious manner; courteously; benignantly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
My Legacy 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, My Legacy, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/my-legacy.html, id L29420.
Form and metre
My Legacy is 16 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
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 AB- meA · lightB · legacy
- 2 AB- feeA · brightB · ministry
- 3 -BA purity · delightB · meA
- 4 AB- beA · whiteB · graciously
- 5 ABA- theeA · sightB · meA · legacy
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My friend has gone away from me | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| From shadow into perfect light, | 8 | ·/···/·· |
| But leaving a sweet legacy. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| My heart shall hold it long in fee— | 8 | ········ |
| A grand ideal, calm and bright, | 7 | ··˘/··· |
| A song of hope for ministry, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| A faith of unstained purity, | 8 | ···˘//˘˘ |
| A thought of beauty for delight— | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| These did my friend bequeath to me; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And, more than even these can be, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The worthy pattern of a white, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Unmarred life lived most graciously. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Dear comrade, loyal thanks to thee | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| Who now hath fared beyond my sight, | 8 | ········ |
| My friend has gone away from me, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| But leaving a sweet legacy. | 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.