The Seeker
I sought for my happiness over the world,Oh, eager and far was my quest;I sought it on mountain and desert and sea,I asked it of east and of west.I sought it in beautiful cities of men,On shores that were sunny and blue,And laughter and lyric and pleasure were mineIn palaces wondrous to view;Oh, the world gave me much to my plea and my prayerBut never I found aught of happiness there!
Then I took my way back to a valley of oldAnd a little brown house by a rill,Where the winds piped all day in the sentinel firsThat guarded the crest of the hill;I went by the path that my childhood had knownThrough the bracken and up by the glen,And I paused at the gate of the garden to drinkThe scent of sweet-briar again;The homelight shone out through the dusk as of yoreAnd happiness waited for me at the door!
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- rill n.
- A very small brook; a streamlet. [Cf. LG. rille a small channel or brook, a furrow, a chamfer, OE. rigol a small brook, F. rigole a trench or furrow for water, W. rhill a row, rhigol a little di]
- piped a.
- Formed with a pipe; having pipe or pipes; tubular.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- childhood n.
- The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
- bracken n.
- A brake or fern. [OE. braken, AS. bracce. See 2d Brake, n.]
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Seeker 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, The Seeker, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/the-seeker.html, id L29429.
Form and metre
The Seeker is 20 lines in 2 stanzas of 10 lines each. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 98%).
See other poems in anapaestic 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-B-BCC world · questA · sea · westA · men · blueB · mine · viewB · prayerC · thereC
- 2 -A-A-B-BCC old · rillA · firs · hillA · known · glenB · drink · againB · yoreC · doorC
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I sought for my happiness over the world, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Oh, eager and far was my quest; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| I sought it on mountain and desert and sea, | 11 | ····/˘·˘/·· |
| I asked it of east and of west. | 8 | ········ |
| I sought it in beautiful cities of men, | 10 | ····/˘/˘·· |
| On shores that were sunny and blue, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| And laughter and lyric and pleasure were mine | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| In palaces wondrous to view; | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘·· |
| Oh, the world gave me much to my plea and my prayer | 12 | ············ |
| But never I found aught of happiness there! | 9 | ·/····/˘· |
| Then I took my way back to a valley of old | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| And a little brown house by a rill, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Where the winds piped all day in the sentinel firs | 11 | ········/˘· |
| That guarded the crest of the hill; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| I went by the path that my childhood had known | 11 | ·······/··· |
| Through the bracken and up by the glen, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| And I paused at the gate of the garden to drink | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| The scent of sweet-briar again; | 8 | ····/˘˘/ |
| The homelight shone out through the dusk as of yore | 12 | ············ |
| And happiness waited for me at the door! | 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.