Through the Valley
As I came through the Valley of Despair,As I came through the valley, on my sight,More awful than the darkness of the night,Shone glimpses of a Past that had been fair,And memories of eyes that used to smile,And wafts of perfume from a vanished isle,As I came through the valley.
As I came through the valley I could see,As I came through the valley, fair and far,As drowning men look up and see a star,The fading shore of my lost Used-to-be;And like an arrow in my heart I heardThe last sad notes of Hope's expiring bird,As I came through the valley.
As I came through the valley desolate,As I came through the valley, like a beamOf lurid lightning I beheld a gleamOf Love's great eyes that now were full of hate.Dear God! Dear God! I could bear all but that;But I fell down soul-stricken, dead, thereat,As I came through the valley.
Words in this poem
- isle v. t.
- To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island.
- fading n.
- An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song.
- expiring a.
- Breathing out air from the lungs; emitting fluid or volatile matter; exhaling; breathing the last breath; dying; ending; terminating.
- lurid a.
- Pale yellow; ghastly pale; wan; gloomy; dismal. [L. luridus.]
- thereat adv.
- At that place; there.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Through the Valley is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Passion, Project Gutenberg ebook #16776; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Through the Valley, in Poems of Passion (1883), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16776, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wilcox-passion/through-the-valley.html, id L22150.
Form and metre
Through the Valley is 21 lines in 3 stanzas of 7 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 ABBACC- despairA · sightB · nightB · fairA · smileC · isleC · valley
- 2 ABBACC- seeA · farB · starB · beA · heardC · birdC · valley
- 3 ABBAA-- desolateA · beamB · gleamB · hateA · thatA · thereat · valley
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As I came through the Valley of Despair, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| As I came through the valley, on my sight, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| More awful than the darkness of the night, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Shone glimpses of a Past that had been fair, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And memories of eyes that used to smile, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| And wafts of perfume from a vanished isle, | 10 | ···˘/··/˘· |
| As I came through the valley. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| As I came through the valley I could see, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| As I came through the valley, fair and far, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| As drowning men look up and see a star, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The fading shore of my lost Used-to-be; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And like an arrow in my heart I heard | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The last sad notes of Hope's expiring bird, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| As I came through the valley. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| As I came through the valley desolate, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| As I came through the valley, like a beam | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of lurid lightning I beheld a gleam | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Of Love's great eyes that now were full of hate. | 10 | ·········· |
| Dear God! Dear God! I could bear all but that; | 10 | ·········· |
| But I fell down soul-stricken, dead, thereat, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| As I came through the valley. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
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.