Faith
When I see truth, do I seek truthOnly that I may things denote,And, rich by striving, deck my youthAs with a vain unusual coat?
Or seek I truth for other ends:That she in other hearts may stir,That even my most familiar friendsMay turn from me to look on her?
So I this day myself was asking;Out of the window skies were blueAnd Thames was in the sunlight basking;My thoughts coiled inwards like a screw.
I watched them anxious for a while;Then quietly, as I did watch,Spread in my soul a sudden smile:I knew that no firm thing they'd catch.
And I remembered if I leaptUpon the bosom of the windIt would sustain me; question slept;I felt that I had almost sinned.
About this text
Faith is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems - First Series, Project Gutenberg ebook #37860; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Collings Squire, Faith, in Poems: First Series (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37860, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/squire-poems/faith.html, id L23179.
Form and metre
Faith is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABAB truthA · denoteB · youthA · coatB
- 2 ABAB endsA · stirB · friendsA · herB
- 3 ABAB askingA · blueB · baskingA · screwB
- 4 A-A- whileA · watch · smileA · catch
- 5 ABAB leaptA · windB · sleptA · sinnedB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When I see truth, do I seek truth | 8 | ········ |
| Only that I may things denote, | 8 | /˘····˘/ |
| And, rich by striving, deck my youth | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| As with a vain unusual coat? | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Or seek I truth for other ends: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That she in other hearts may stir, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That even my most familiar friends | 8 | ·/··˘/˘· |
| May turn from me to look on her? | 8 | ········ |
| So I this day myself was asking; | 9 | ·····/·/˘ |
| Out of the window skies were blue | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And Thames was in the sunlight basking; | 9 | ·····/·/˘ |
| My thoughts coiled inwards like a screw. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I watched them anxious for a while; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Then quietly, as I did watch, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Spread in my soul a sudden smile: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I knew that no firm thing they'd catch. | 8 | ········ |
| And I remembered if I leapt | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Upon the bosom of the wind | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| It would sustain me; question slept; | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| I felt that I had almost sinned. | 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.