Stanzas
‘Before each vanPrick forth the aery knights, and couch their spearsTill thickest legions close; with feats of armsFrom either end of Heaven the welkin burns.’
Away! away! away! away!Ye have not kept your secret well,I will abide that other day,Those other lands ye tell.
Has time no leisure left for these,The acts that ye rehearse?Is not eternity a leaseFor better deeds than verse?
’Tis sweet to hear of heroes dead,To know them still alive,But sweeter if we earn their bread,And in us they survive.
Our life should feed the springs of fameWith a perennial wave,As ocean feeds the babbling fountsWhich find in it their grave.
Ye skies drop gently round my breast,And be my corslet blue,Ye earth receive my lance in rest,My faithful charger you;
Ye stars my spear-heads in the sky,My arrow-tips ye are;I see the routed foemen fly,My bright spears fixèd are.
Give me an angel for a foe,Fix now the place and time,And straight to meet him I will goAbove the starry chime.
And with our clashing bucklers’ clangThe heavenly spheres shall ring,While bright the northern lights shall hangBeside our tourneying.
And if she lose her champion true,Tell Heaven not despair,For I will be her champion new,Her fame I will repair.
Words in this poem
- welkin n.
- The visible regions of the air; the vault of heaven; the sky. [OE. welken, welkene, welkne, wolcne, weolcne, AS. wolcen, pl. wolcnu, a cloud; akin to D. wolk, OFries. wolken, OS. wolkan, G. wolke, OHG. wolchan, and probably]
- corslet n.
- A corselet. Hakluyt.
- charger n.
- One who, or that which charges.
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- chime n.
- The harmonious sound of bells, or of musical instruments. [OE. chimbe, prop., cymbal, OF. cymbe, cymble, in a dialectic form, chymble, F. cymbale, L. cymbalum, fr. Gr. Cymbal.]
- clang v. t.
- To strike together so as to produce a ringing metallic sound. [L. clangere; akin to Gr. clank.]
- 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
Stanzas 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, Stanzas, in Poems of Nature (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59988, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/thoreau-poems/stanzas.html, id L02806.
Form and metre
Stanzas is 40 lines in 10 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 6 of its 10 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 22% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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.
- 2 ABAB awayA · wellB · dayA · tellB
- 3 -A-A these · rehearseA · lease · verseA
- 4 ABAB deadA · aliveB · breadA · surviveB
- 5 -A-A fame · waveA · founts · graveA
- 6 ABAB breastA · blueB · restA · youB
- 7 ABAB skyA · areB · flyA · areB
- 8 ABAB foeA · timeB · goA · chimeB
- 9 A-AA clangA · ring · hangA · tourneyingA
- 10 ABAB trueA · despairB · newA · repairB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| ‘Before each van | 4 | ···· |
| Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| From either end of Heaven the welkin burns.’ | 10 | ·/˘··/·/˘· |
| Away! away! away! away! | 8 | ˘/˘/˘/˘/ |
| Ye have not kept your secret well, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I will abide that other day, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Those other lands ye tell. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Has time no leisure left for these, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The acts that ye rehearse? | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Is not eternity a lease | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| For better deeds than verse? | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| ’Tis sweet to hear of heroes dead, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To know them still alive, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| But sweeter if we earn their bread, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And in us they survive. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Our life should feed the springs of fame | 8 | /······· |
| With a perennial wave, | 7 | ··˘/˘˘· |
| As ocean feeds the babbling founts | 8 | ·/··/˘˘· |
| Which find in it their grave. | 6 | ······ |
| Ye skies drop gently round my breast, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And be my corslet blue, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Ye earth receive my lance in rest, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| My faithful charger you; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Ye stars my spear-heads in the sky, | 8 | ········ |
| My arrow-tips ye are; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I see the routed foemen fly, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| My bright spears fixèd are. | 5 | ····· |
| Give me an angel for a foe, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Fix now the place and time, | 6 | ······ |
| And straight to meet him I will go | 8 | ········ |
| Above the starry chime. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And with our clashing bucklers’ clang | 8 | ··//˘··· |
| The heavenly spheres shall ring, | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| While bright the northern lights shall hang | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Beside our tourneying. | 7 | ·//˘/˘˘ |
| And if she lose her champion true, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Tell Heaven not despair, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| For I will be her champion new, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Her fame I will repair. | 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.