We ranging down this lower track
We ranging down this lower track,The path we came by, thorn and flower,Is shadow’d by the growing hour,Lest life should fail in looking back.
So be it: there no shade can lastIn that deep dawn behind the tomb,But clear from marge to marge shall bloomThe eternal landscape of the past;
A lifelong tract of time reveal’d;The fruitful hours of still increase;Days order’d in a wealthy peace,And those five years its richest field.
O Love! thy province were not large,A bounded field, nor stretching far,Look also, Love, a brooding star,A rosy warmth from marge to marge.
Words in this poem
- marge n.
- Border; margin; edge; verge. [F. marge. See Margin.]
- 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,]
- lifelong a.
- Lasting or continuing through life. [Life + long. Cf. Livelong.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
We ranging down this lower track 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, We ranging down this lower track, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-45.html, id L18405.
Form and metre
We ranging down this lower track is 16 lines in 4 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 8.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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 trackA · flowerB · hourB · backA
- 2 ABBA lastA · tombB · bloomB · pastA
- 3 ABBA reveal'dA · increaseB · peaceB · fieldA
- 4 ABBA largeA · farB · starB · margeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We ranging down this lower track, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The path we came by, thorn and flower, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Is shadow’d by the growing hour, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Lest life should fail in looking back. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| So be it: there no shade can last | 8 | ········ |
| In that deep dawn behind the tomb, | 8 | ········ |
| But clear from marge to marge shall bloom | 8 | ········ |
| The eternal landscape of the past; | 9 | ·˘/˘/···· |
| A lifelong tract of time reveal’d; | 8 | ·//···˘/ |
| The fruitful hours of still increase; | 8 | ·/˘/··˘/ |
| Days order’d in a wealthy peace, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And those five years its richest field. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| O Love! thy province were not large, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A bounded field, nor stretching far, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Look also, Love, a brooding star, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A rosy warmth from marge to marge. | 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.