Pilgrims
‘Have you not seenIn ancient timesPilgrims pass byToward other climes?With shining faces,Youthful and strong,Mounting this hillWith speech and with song?’
‘Ah, my good sir,I know not those ways:Little my knowledge,Tho’ many my days.When I have slumbered,I have heard soundsAs of travellers passingThese my grounds:
‘’Twas a sweet musicWafted them by,I could not tellIf afar off or nigh.Unless I dreamed it,This was of yore:I never told itTo mortal before;
‘Never rememberedBut in my dreams,What to me wakingA miracle seems.’
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.]
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Pilgrims 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, Pilgrims, in Poems of Nature (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59988, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/thoreau-poems/pilgrims.html, id L02837.
Form and metre
Pilgrims is 28 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.6 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 39% 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-A-B-B seen · timesA · by · climesA · faces · strongB · hill · songB
- 2 -A-A-B-B sir · waysA · knowledge · daysA · slumbered · soundsB · passing · groundsB
- 3 -A-ABCBC music · byA · tell · nighA · itB · yoreC · itB · beforeC
- 4 -A-A remembered · dreamsA · waking · seemsA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| ‘Have you not seen | 4 | ···· |
| In ancient times | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Pilgrims pass by | 4 | /˘·· |
| Toward other climes? | 5 | ··/˘· |
| With shining faces, | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Youthful and strong, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Mounting this hill | 4 | /˘·· |
| With speech and with song?’ | 5 | ····· |
| ‘Ah, my good sir, | 4 | ···· |
| I know not those ways: | 5 | ····· |
| Little my knowledge, | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Tho’ many my days. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| When I have slumbered, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| I have heard sounds | 4 | ···· |
| As of travellers passing | 7 | ··/˘˘/˘ |
| These my grounds: | 3 | ··· |
| ‘’Twas a sweet music | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Wafted them by, | 4 | /˘·· |
| I could not tell | 4 | ···· |
| If afar off or nigh. | 6 | ·˘/··· |
| Unless I dreamed it, | 5 | ····· |
| This was of yore: | 4 | ···· |
| I never told it | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| To mortal before; | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| ‘Never remembered | 5 | /˘˘/˘ |
| But in my dreams, | 4 | ···· |
| What to me waking | 5 | ···/˘ |
| A miracle seems.’ | 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.