Outward Bound
Dear Earth, near Earth, the clay that made us men,The land we sowed,The hearth that glowed--O Mother, must we bid farewell to thee?Fast dawns the last dawn, and what shall comfort thenThe lonely hearts that roam the outer sea?
Gray wakes the daybreak, the shivering sails are set,To misty deepsThe channel sweeps--O Mother, think on us who think on thee!Earth-home, birth-home, with love remember yetThe sons in exile on the eternal sea.
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,]
- daybreak n.
- The time of the first appearance of light in the morning.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Outward Bound is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems: New and Old, Project Gutenberg ebook #24405; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry John Newbolt, Outward Bound, in Poems: New and Old (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24405, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/newbolt-poems/outward-bound.html, id L11433.
Form and metre
Outward Bound is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 25% 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 ABBCAC menA · sowedB · glowedB · theeC · thenA · seaC
- 2 A--BAB setA · deeps · sweeps · theeB · yetA · seaB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dear Earth, near Earth, the clay that made us men, | 10 | ·········· |
| The land we sowed, | 4 | ···· |
| The hearth that glowed-- | 4 | ···· |
| O Mother, must we bid farewell to thee? | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| Fast dawns the last dawn, and what shall comfort then | 11 | ········/˘· |
| The lonely hearts that roam the outer sea? | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Gray wakes the daybreak, the shivering sails are set, | 11 | ···/··/˘··· |
| To misty deeps | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The channel sweeps-- | 4 | ·/˘· |
| O Mother, think on us who think on thee! | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Earth-home, birth-home, with love remember yet | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| The sons in exile on the eternal sea. | 11 | ···/···˘/˘· |
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.