The Wanderer
To Youth there comes a whisper out of the west:"O loiterer, hasten where there waits for theeA life to build, a love therein to nest,And a man's work, serving the age to be."
Peace, peace awhile! Before his tireless feetHill beyond hill the road in sunlight goes;He breathes the breath of morning, clear and sweet,And his eyes love the high eternal snows.
Words in this poem
- loiterer n.
- One who loiters; an idler.
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wanderer 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, The Wanderer, in Poems: New and Old (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24405, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/newbolt-poems/the-wanderer.html, id L11473.
Form and metre
The Wanderer is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. 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 10.2 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 ABAB westA · theeB · nestA · beB
- 2 ABAB feetA · goesB · sweetA · snowsB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To Youth there comes a whisper out of the west: | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| "O loiterer, hasten where there waits for thee | 11 | ·/˘˘/˘····· |
| A life to build, a love therein to nest, | 10 | ·········· |
| And a man's work, serving the age to be." | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Peace, peace awhile! Before his tireless feet | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Hill beyond hill the road in sunlight goes; | 10 | ·······/·· |
| He breathes the breath of morning, clear and sweet, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And his eyes love the high eternal snows. | 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.