Youth
His song of dawn outsoars the joyful bird,Swift on the weary road his footfall comes;The dusty air that by his stride is stirredBeats with a buoyant march of fairy drums."Awake, O Earth! thine ancient slumber break;To the new day, O slumbrous Earth, awake!"
Yet long ago that merry march began,His feet are older than the path they tread;His music is the morning-song of man,His stride the stride of all the valiant dead;His youngest hopes are memories, and his eyesDeep with the old, old dream that never dies.
Words in this poem
- footfall n.
- A setting down of the foot; a footstep; the sound of a footstep.
- stride v. t.
- To walk with long steps, especially in a measured or pompous manner. [AS. stridan to stride, to strive; akin to LG. striden, OFries. strida to strive, D. strijden to strive, to contend, G. streiten, OHG. stritan; of uncertain orig]
- slumbrous a.
- Slumberous. Keats.
- valiant a.
- Vigorous in body; strong; powerful; as, a valiant fencer. [OE. valiant, F. vaillant, OF. vaillant, valant, originally p. pr. of OF. & F. valoir to be worth, L. valere to be strong. See Wield, and cf. Avail, Convalesce, ]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Youth 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, Youth, in Poems: New and Old (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24405, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/newbolt-poems/youth.html, id L11472.
Form and metre
Youth is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCC. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 17% 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 ABABCC birdA · comesB · stirredA · drumsB · breakC · awakeC
- 2 ABABCC beganA · treadB · manA · deadB · eyesC · diesC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| His song of dawn outsoars the joyful bird, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Swift on the weary road his footfall comes; | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| The dusty air that by his stride is stirred | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Beats with a buoyant march of fairy drums. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| "Awake, O Earth! thine ancient slumber break; | 10 | ˘/···/˘/˘· |
| To the new day, O slumbrous Earth, awake!" | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Yet long ago that merry march began, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| His feet are older than the path they tread; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| His music is the morning-song of man, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| His stride the stride of all the valiant dead; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| His youngest hopes are memories, and his eyes | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Deep with the old, old dream that never dies. | 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.