Eastward Bound
We mount the arc of ocean's roundTo meet the splendours of the sun;Then downward rush into the darkWhen the blue, spacious day is done.
The slow, eternal drift of starsDraws over us until the dawn.Then the grey steep we mount once more,And night is down the void withdrawn.
Space, and interminable hours,And moons that rise, and sweep, and fall,--On-swinging earth, and orbéd sea,--And voyaging souls more vast than all!
About this text
Eastward Bound is in the public domain. This text is taken from New Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59897; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charles G. D. Roberts, Eastward Bound, in New Poems (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59897, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/roberts-new-poems/eastward-bound.html, id L11130.
Form and metre
Eastward Bound is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 -A-A round · sunA · dark · doneA
- 2 -A-A stars · dawnA · more · withdrawnA
- 3 -A-A hours · fallA · sea · allA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| We mount the arc of ocean's round | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To meet the splendours of the sun; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Then downward rush into the dark | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| When the blue, spacious day is done. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The slow, eternal drift of stars | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Draws over us until the dawn. | 8 | ········ |
| Then the grey steep we mount once more, | 8 | ········ |
| And night is down the void withdrawn. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Space, and interminable hours, | 9 | ··˘/˘˘˘/˘ |
| And moons that rise, and sweep, and fall,-- | 8 | ········ |
| On-swinging earth, and orbéd sea,-- | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And voyaging souls more vast than all! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
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.