Tennyson
From the misty shores of midnight, touched with splendours of the moon,To the singing tides of heaven, and the light more clear than noon,Passed a soul that grew to music till it was with God in tune.
Brother of the greatest poets, true to nature, true to art;Lover of Immortal Love, uplifter of the human heart;Who shall cheer us with high music, who shall sing, if thou depart?
Silence here--for love is silent, gazing on the lessening sail;Silence here--for grief is voiceless when the mighty minstrels fail;Silence here--but far beyond us, many voices crying, Hail!
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
- voiceless a.
- Having no voice, utterance, or vote; silent; mute; dumb.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Tennyson is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, Project Gutenberg ebook #16229; 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 Van Dyke, Tennyson, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/tennyson.html, id L22960.
Form and metre
Tennyson is 9 lines in 3 stanzas of 3 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines. The metre is trochaic octameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic octameter.
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 AAA moonA · noonA · tuneA
- 2 AAA artA · heartA · departA
- 3 AAA sailA · failA · hailA
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 trochaic octameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| From the misty shores of midnight, touched with splendours of the moon, | 15 | ··/˘··/···/˘··· |
| To the singing tides of heaven, and the light more clear than noon, | 15 | ··/˘··/˘······· |
| Passed a soul that grew to music till it was with God in tune. | 15 | ······/˘······· |
| Brother of the greatest poets, true to nature, true to art; | 15 | /˘··/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Lover of Immortal Love, uplifter of the human heart; | 15 | /˘·˘/˘······/˘· |
| Who shall cheer us with high music, who shall sing, if thou depart? | 15 | ······/˘·····˘/ |
| Silence here--for love is silent, gazing on the lessening sail; | 15 | /˘····/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Silence here--for grief is voiceless when the mighty minstrels fail; | 15 | /˘····/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Silence here--but far beyond us, many voices crying, Hail! | 15 | /˘······/˘/˘/˘· |
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.