God-Seeking
God-seeking thou hast journeyed far and nigh.On dawn-lit mountain-tops thy soul did yearnTo hear His trailing garments wander by;And where 'mid thunderous glooms great sunsets burn,Vainly thou sought'st His shadow on sea and sky;Or gazing up, at noontide, could'st discernOnly a neutral heaven's indifferent eyeAnd countenance austerely taciturn.
Yet whom thou soughtest I have found at last;Neither where tempest dims the world belowNor where the westering daylight reels aghastIn conflagrations of red overthrow:But where this virgin brooklet silvers past,And yellowing either bank the king-cups blow.
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- yearn v. t.
- To pain; to grieve; to vex. [Also earn, ern; probably a corruption of OE. ermen to grieve, AS. ierman, yrman, or geierman, geyrman, fr. earm wretched, poor; akin to D. & G. arm, Icel. armr,]
- thunderous a.
- Producing thunder. [Written also thundrous.]
- noontide n.
- The time of noon; midday. [From noon + tide time; cf. AS. n the ninth hour.]
- austerely adv.
- Severely; rigidly; sternly.
- taciturn a.
- Habitually silent; not given to converse; not apt to talk or speak. [L. taciturnus: cf. F. taciturne. See Tacit.]
- westering a.
- Passing to the west.
- daylight n.
- The light of day as opposed to the darkness of night; the light of the sun, as opposed to that of the moon or to artificial light.
- yellowing n.
- The act or process of making yellow.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
God-Seeking is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of William Watson, Project Gutenberg ebook #13179; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Watson, God-Seeking, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/god-seeking.html, id L11374.
Form and metre
God-Seeking is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 36% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABABAB nighA · yearnB · byA · burnB · skyA · discernB · eyeA · taciturnB
- 2 ABABAB lastA · belowB · aghastA · overthrowB · pastA · blowB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| God-seeking thou hast journeyed far and nigh. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| On dawn-lit mountain-tops thy soul did yearn | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To hear His trailing garments wander by; | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| And where 'mid thunderous glooms great sunsets burn, | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| Vainly thou sought'st His shadow on sea and sky; | 11 | /˘···/····· |
| Or gazing up, at noontide, could'st discern | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Only a neutral heaven's indifferent eye | 11 | /˘·/˘/˘˘/˘· |
| And countenance austerely taciturn. | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘/˘· |
| Yet whom thou soughtest I have found at last; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Neither where tempest dims the world below | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Nor where the westering daylight reels aghast | 10 | ···/˘/··˘/ |
| In conflagrations of red overthrow: | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| But where this virgin brooklet silvers past, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| And yellowing either bank the king-cups blow. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
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.