The Voyagers
We shall launch our shallop on waters blue from some dim primrose shore,We shall sail with the magic of dusk behind and enchanted coasts before,Over oceans that stretch to the sunset land where lost Atlantis lies,And our pilot shall be the vesper star that shines in the amber skies.
The sirens will call to us again, all sweet and demon-fair,And a pale mermaiden will beckon us, with mist on her night-black hair;We shall see the flash of her ivory arms, her mocking and luring face,And her guiling laughter will echo through the great, wind-winnowed space.
But we shall not linger for woven spell, or sea-nymph's sorceries,It is ours to seek for the fount of youth, and the gold of Hesperides,Till the harp of the waves in its rhythmic beat keeps time to our pulses' swing,And the orient welkin is smit to flame with auroral crimsoning.
And at last, on some white and wondrous dawn, we shall reach the fairy isleWhere our hope and our dream are waiting us, and the to-morrows smile;With song on our lips and faith in our hearts we sail on our ancient quest,And each man shall find, at the end of the voyage, the thing he loves the best.
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,]
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- vesper n.
- The evening star; Hesper; Venus, when seen after sunset; hence, the evening. [L., the evening, the evening star, the west; akin to Gr. west. Cf. Hesperian, Vespers.]
- beckon v. t.
- To make a significant sign to; hence, to summon, as by a motion of the hand.
- rhythmic a.
- Pertaining to, or of the nature of, rhythm DAy and night I worked my rhythmic thought. Mrs. Browning. [Gr. rhythmicus, F. rhythmique.]
- welkin n.
- The visible regions of the air; the vault of heaven; the sky. [OE. welken, welkene, welkne, wolcne, weolcne, AS. wolcen, pl. wolcnu, a cloud; akin to D. wolk, OFries. wolken, OS. wolkan, G. wolke, OHG. wolchan, and probably]
- smit
- 3d. pers. sing. pres. of Smite.
- auroral a.
- Belonging to, or resembling, the aurora (the dawn or the northern lights); rosy.
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- isle v. t.
- To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Voyagers 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 Voyagers, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/the-voyagers.html, id L29378.
Form and metre
The Voyagers is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 AABB shoreA · beforeA · liesB · skiesB
- 2 AABB fairA · hairA · faceB · spaceB
- 3 AABB sorceriesA · hesperidesA · swingB · crimsoningB
- 4 AABB isleA · smileA · questB · bestB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We shall launch our shallop on waters blue from some dim primrose shore, | 16 | ···//˘·/˘····/·· |
| We shall sail with the magic of dusk behind and enchanted coasts before, | 18 | ·····/˘·····˘/˘··· |
| Over oceans that stretch to the sunset land where lost Atlantis lies, | 16 | ·/˘····/····˘/˘· |
| And our pilot shall be the vesper star that shines in the amber skies. | 17 | ·//˘···/˘·····/˘· |
| The sirens will call to us again, all sweet and demon-fair, | 15 | ·/˘····˘/···/˘· |
| And a pale mermaiden will beckon us, with mist on her night-black hair; | 17 | ·······/˘········ |
| We shall see the flash of her ivory arms, her mocking and luring face, | 17 | ·······/˘··/˘·/˘· |
| And her guiling laughter will echo through the great, wind-winnowed space. | 16 | ··/˘/˘·/˘····/·· |
| But we shall not linger for woven spell, or sea-nymph's sorceries, | 15 | ····/˘·/˘····/˘ |
| It is ours to seek for the fount of youth, and the gold of Hesperides, | 18 | ··/···········˘/˘˘ |
| Till the harp of the waves in its rhythmic beat keeps time to our pulses' swing, | 18 | ········/˘····//˘· |
| And the orient welkin is smit to flame with auroral crimsoning. | 17 | ··/˘·/˘·····˘/˘/˘ |
| And at last, on some white and wondrous dawn, we shall reach the fairy isle | 17 | ·······/˘·····/˘· |
| Where our hope and our dream are waiting us, and the to-morrows smile; | 16 | ·/··/··/˘····/˘· |
| With song on our lips and faith in our hearts we sail on our ancient quest, | 17 | ···/····/····//˘· |
| And each man shall find, at the end of the voyage, the thing he loves the best. | 18 | ··········/˘······ |
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.