Sonnet III
There was a youth around whose early wayWhite angels hung in converse and sweet choir,Teaching in summer clouds his thought to stray, --In cloud and far horizon to desire.His life was nursed in beauty, like the streamBorn of clear showers and the mountain dew,Close under snow-clad summits where they gleamForever pure against heaven's orient blue.Within the city's shades he walked at last.Faint and more faint in sad recessionalDown the dim corridors of Time outworn,A chorus ebbed from that forsaken past,A hymn of glories fled beyond recallWith the lost heights and splendor of life's morn.
Words in this poem
- clad v.
- To clothe. Holland.
- recessional a.
- Of or pertaining to recession or withdrawal. Recessional hymn, a hymn sung in a procession returning from the choir to the robing room.
- 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
Sonnet III is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #617; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alan Seeger, Sonnet III, in Poems (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #617, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seeger-poems/sonnet-iii.html, id L12936.
Form and metre
Sonnet III is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% 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 ABABCDCDE-FE-F wayA · choirB · strayA · desireB · streamC · dewD · gleamC · blueD · lastE · recessional · outwornF · pastE · recall · mornF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There was a youth around whose early way | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| White angels hung in converse and sweet choir, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Teaching in summer clouds his thought to stray, -- | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| In cloud and far horizon to desire. | 11 | ····˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| His life was nursed in beauty, like the stream | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Born of clear showers and the mountain dew, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Close under snow-clad summits where they gleam | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Forever pure against heaven's orient blue. | 12 | ˘/˘···/˘/˘·· |
| Within the city's shades he walked at last. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Faint and more faint in sad recessional | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Down the dim corridors of Time outworn, | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| A chorus ebbed from that forsaken past, | 11 | ·/˘/˘··˘/˘· |
| A hymn of glories fled beyond recall | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| With the lost heights and splendor of life's morn. | 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.