The Moon
‘Time wears her not; she doth his chariot guide;Mortality below her orb is placed.’--RALEIGH.
The full-orbed moon with unchanged rayMounts up the eastern sky,Not doomed to these short nights for aye,But shining steadily.
She does not wane, but my fortùne,Which her rays do not bless;My wayward path declineth soon,But she shines not the less.
And if she faintly glimmers hereAnd palèd is her light,Yet always in her proper sphereShe’s mistress of the night.
Words in this poem
- mortality n.
- The condition or quality of being mortal; subjection to death or to the necessity of dying. [L. mortalitas: cf. F. mortalité.]
- wayward a.
- Taking one's own way; disobedient; froward; perverse; willful. [OE. weiward, for aweiward, i. e., turned away. See Away, and -ward.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Moon 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, The Moon, in Poems of Nature (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59988, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/thoreau-poems/the-moon.html, id L02820.
Form and metre
The Moon is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% 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 -AA- ray · skyA · ayeA · steadily
- 3 -A-A fortùne · blessA · soon · lessA
- 4 ABAB hereA · lightB · sphereA · nightB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| ‘Time wears her not; she doth his chariot guide; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Mortality below her orb is placed.’--RALEIGH. | 11 | ˘/˘······/˘ |
| The full-orbed moon with unchanged ray | 8 | ·····˘/· |
| Mounts up the eastern sky, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Not doomed to these short nights for aye, | 8 | ········ |
| But shining steadily. | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| She does not wane, but my fortùne, | 8 | ········ |
| Which her rays do not bless; | 6 | ······ |
| My wayward path declineth soon, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| But she shines not the less. | 6 | ······ |
| And if she faintly glimmers here | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And palèd is her light, | 5 | ····· |
| Yet always in her proper sphere | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| She’s mistress of the night. | 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.