Lines
All things are current foundOn earthly ground,Spirits and elementsHave their descents.
Night and day, year on year,High and low, far and near,These are our own aspects,These are our own regrets.
Ye gods of the shore,Who abide evermore,I see your far headland,Stretching on either hand;I hear the sweet evening soundsFrom your undecaying grounds;Cheat me no more with time,Take me to your clime.
Words in this poem
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
- clime n.
- A climate; a tract or region of the earth. See Climate. [L. clima. See Climate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lines is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Nature, Project Gutenberg ebook #59988; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry David Thoreau, Lines, in Poems of Nature (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59988, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/thoreau-poems/lines-2.html, id L02823.
Form and metre
Lines is 16 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 88% of the lines. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.8 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 19% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, 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 AABB foundA · groundA · elementsB · descentsB
- 2 AA-- yearA · nearA · aspects · regrets
- 3 AABBCCDD shoreA · evermoreA · headlandB · handB · soundsC · groundsC · timeD · climeD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| All things are current found | 6 | ···/˘· |
| On earthly ground, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Spirits and elements | 6 | /˘·/˘˘ |
| Have their descents. | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Night and day, year on year, | 6 | ······ |
| High and low, far and near, | 6 | ······ |
| These are our own aspects, | 7 | ··/˘·/· |
| These are our own regrets. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Ye gods of the shore, | 5 | ····· |
| Who abide evermore, | 6 | ·˘//˘· |
| I see your far headland, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Stretching on either hand; | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| I hear the sweet evening sounds | 7 | ····/˘· |
| From your undecaying grounds; | 6 | ······ |
| Cheat me no more with time, | 6 | ······ |
| Take me to your clime. | 5 | ····· |
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.