With weary steps I loiter on
With weary steps I loiter on,Tho’ always under alter’d skiesThe purple from the distance dies,My prospect and horizon gone.
No joy the blowing season gives,The herald melodies of spring,But in the songs I love to singA doubtful gleam of solace lives.
If any care for what is hereSurvive in spirits render’d free,Then are these songs I sing of theeNot all ungrateful to thine ear.
Words in this poem
- solace n.
- Comfort in grief; alleviation of grief or anxiety; also, that which relieves in distress; that which cheers or consoles; relief. [OF. solas, ssoulaz, L. solacium, solatium, fr. solari to comfort, console. Cf. Console, v. t.]
- ungrateful a.
- Not grateful; not thankful for favors; making no returns, or making ill return for kindness, attention, etc.; ingrateful. South.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
With weary steps I loiter on is in the public domain. This text is taken from In memoriam, Project Gutenberg ebook #70950; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Tennyson, With weary steps I loiter on, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-38.html, id L18398.
Form and metre
With weary steps I loiter on is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 33% 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 ABBA onA · skiesB · diesB · goneA
- 2 ABBA givesA · springB · singB · livesA
- 3 ABBA hereA · freeB · theeB · earA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| With weary steps I loiter on, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Tho’ always under alter’d skies | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| The purple from the distance dies, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| My prospect and horizon gone. | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| No joy the blowing season gives, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The herald melodies of spring, | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| But in the songs I love to sing | 8 | ········ |
| A doubtful gleam of solace lives. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| If any care for what is here | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Survive in spirits render’d free, | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Then are these songs I sing of thee | 8 | ········ |
| Not all ungrateful to thine ear. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
On this poem
"Then are these songs I sing of thee Not all ungrateful to thine ear."
Notes from the edition 6
Section introductions from Alfred Gatty, <i>A Key to Lord Tennyson's “In Memoriam”</i>, 4th ed. (George Bell & Sons, 1900; Project Gutenberg #36637). Line notes credited “[Tennyson]” are Tennyson's own notes; “[Hallam Tennyson]” marks a note that is wholly his son and editor's own explanatory bracket, not the poet's own words; “[Emily Tennyson]” marks the few notes signed by his wife. All three are from <i>The Works of Tennyson, Annotated by the Author</i>, ed. Hallam, Lord Tennyson, vol. 3 (Macmillan, 1908; Internet Archive worksoftennysona03tennuoft). Line notes credited “[Bradley]” are A. C. Bradley's, from <i>A Commentary on Tennyson's In Memoriam</i> (Macmillan, 1910; Internet Archive commentaryontenn00braduoft). All these number sections by the final, 131-section text, not the site's own 1850 numbering: from final XL to LVIII subtract one section number, from LX on subtract two, to reach the site's; the site prints the 129-section first edition of 1850 (see the work's own blurb), so two of the final text's numbered sections have no home here and are skipped.
- Stanza 1, line 2 'alter'd': from what they were before he walked alone. [Bradley]
- Stanza 1, line 3 Cf. The Princess, VI.: ' No purple in the distance.' [Bradley]
- Stanza 2 the blowing season, the blossoming season. [Tennyson]
- Stanza 2, line 1 Contrast the tone of LXXXIII., the poem of the next spring. The 'blowing season' is, of course, the season when flowers blow. [Bradley]
- Stanza 3, line 1 This idea appears here for the first time in the sections about his poems. The certainty of XXX. that the dead do not ' lose their mortal sympathy ' or ' change to us ' has passed with the exaltation of the moment, and so the gleam of solace is ' doubtful ' (8). [Bradley]
- Stanza 3, line 3 'free5: cf. LXXXV. 86. [Bradley]
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.