The World's Wanderers
Tell me, thou Star, whose wings of lightSpeed thee in thy fiery flight,In what cavern of the nightWill thy pinions close now?
Tell me, Moon, thou pale and grayPilgrim of Heaven's homeless way,In what depth of night or daySeekest thou repose now?
Weary Wind, who wanderestLike the world's rejected guest,Hast thou still some secret nestOn the tree or billow?
Words in this poem
- homeless a.
- Destitute of a home. [AS.hamleas.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- billow n.
- A great wave or surge of the sea or other water, caused usually by violent wind. [Cf. Icel. bylgja billow, Dan. bölge, Sw. bölja; akin to MHG. bulge billow, bag, and to E. bulge. See Bulge.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The World's Wanderers is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #4798; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Percy Bysshe Shelley, The World's Wanderers, in Ode to the West Wind, and Other Poems (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/the-world-s-wanderers.html, id L16419.
Form and metre
The World's Wanderers is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 AAA- lightA · flightA · nightA · now
- 2 AAA- grayA · wayA · dayA · now
- 3 AAA- wanderestA · guestA · nestA · billow
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Tell me, thou Star, whose wings of light | 8 | ········ |
| Speed thee in thy fiery flight, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| In what cavern of the night | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Will thy pinions close now? | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Tell me, Moon, thou pale and gray | 7 | ······· |
| Pilgrim of Heaven's homeless way, | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| In what depth of night or day | 7 | ······· |
| Seekest thou repose now? | 6 | /˘·˘/· |
| Weary Wind, who wanderest | 7 | /˘··/˘˘ |
| Like the world's rejected guest, | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Hast thou still some secret nest | 7 | ····/˘· |
| On the tree or billow? | 6 | ····/˘ |
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.