Voice of the Western Wind
Voice of the western wind!Thou singest from afar,Rich with the music of a landWhere all my memories are;But in thy song I only hearThe echo of a toneThat fell divinely on my earIn days forever flown.
Star of the western sky!Thou beamest from afar,With lustre caught from eyes I knew,Whose orbs were each a star;But, oh, those eyes—too wildly bright—No more eclipse thine own,And never shall I find the lightOf days forever flown!
Words in this poem
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- lustre n.
- A period of five years; a lustrum. [L. lustrum: cf. F. lustre.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Voice of the Western Wind is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of Edmund Clarence Stedman, Project Gutenberg ebook #70763; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edmund Clarence Stedman, Voice of the Western Wind, in The Poetical Works of Edmund Clarence Stedman (1860–1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70763, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stedman-poems/voice-of-the-western-wind.html, id L10645.
Form and metre
Voice of the Western Wind is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 31% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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-ABCBC wind · afarA · land · areA · hearB · toneC · earB · flownC
- 2 -A-ABCBC sky · afarA · knew · starA · brightB · ownC · lightB · flownC
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Voice of the western wind! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Thou singest from afar, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Rich with the music of a land | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Where all my memories are; | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| But in thy song I only hear | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The echo of a tone | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| That fell divinely on my ear | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| In days forever flown. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Star of the western sky! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Thou beamest from afar, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| With lustre caught from eyes I knew, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Whose orbs were each a star; | 6 | ······ |
| But, oh, those eyes—too wildly bright— | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| No more eclipse thine own, | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| And never shall I find the light | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Of days forever flown! | 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.