Lead, Kindly Light
Lead, kindly Light, amid th’ encircling gloom,Lead Thou me on,The night is dark, and I am far from home,Lead Thou me on.Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to seeThe distant scene; one step enough for me.
I was not ever thus, nor prayed that ThouShouldst lead me on;I loved to choose and see my path; but nowLead Thou me on.I loved the garish day; and, spite of fears,Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.
So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it stillWill lead me onO’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, tillThe night is gone,And with the morn those angel faces smile,Which I have loved long since, and lost a while.
Words in this poem
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- garish a.
- Showy; dazzling; ostentatious; attracting or exciting attention. [Cf. OE. gauren to stare; of uncertain origin. Cf. gairish.]
- crag n.
- The neck or throat [A form of craw: cf. D. kraag neck, collar, G. kragen. See Craw.]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lead, Kindly Light is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mary E. Burt, Lead, Kindly Light, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/lead-kindly-light.html, id L25280.
Form and metre
Lead, Kindly Light is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCC. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 gloomA · onB · homeA · onB · seeC · meC
- 2 ABABCC thouA · onB · nowA · onB · fearsC · yearsC
- 3 ABABCC stillA · onB · tillA · goneB · smileC · whileC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lead, kindly Light, amid th’ encircling gloom, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| Lead Thou me on, | 4 | ···· |
| The night is dark, and I am far from home, | 10 | ·········· |
| Lead Thou me on. | 4 | ···· |
| Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see | 10 | ·········· |
| The distant scene; one step enough for me. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Shouldst lead me on; | 4 | ···· |
| I loved to choose and see my path; but now | 10 | ·········· |
| Lead Thou me on. | 4 | ···· |
| I loved the garish day; and, spite of fears, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Pride ruled my will: remember not past years. | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still | 10 | ···/······ |
| Will lead me on | 4 | ···· |
| O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The night is gone, | 4 | ···· |
| And with the morn those angel faces smile, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Which I have loved long since, and lost a while. | 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.