Tired
I am tired to-night, and something,The wind maybe, or the rain,Or the cry of a bird in the copse outside,Has brought back the past and its pain.And I feel, as I sit here thinking,That the hand of a dead old JuneHas reached out hold of my heart's loose strings,And is drawing them up in tune.
I am tired to-night, and I miss you,And long for you, love, through tears;And it seems but to-day that I saw you go--You, who have been gone for years.And I seem to be newly lonely--I, who am so much alone;And the strings of my heart are well in tune,But they have not the same old tone.
I am tired; and that old sorrowSweeps down the bed of my soul,As a turbulent river might suddenly breakway from a dam's control.It beareth a wreck on its bosom,A wreck with a snow-white sail;And the hand on my heart strings thrums away,But they only respond with a wail.
Words in this poem
- maybe adv.
- Perhaps; possibly; peradventure. [For it may be.]
- copse n.
- A wood of small growth; a thicket of brushwood. See Coppice. [Contr. from coppice.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Tired 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, Tired, in Poems of Passion (1883), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16776, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wilcox-passion/tired.html, id L22168.
Form and metre
Tired is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
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 -A-A-B-B something · rainA · outside · painA · thinking · juneB · strings · tuneB
- 2 -A-A-B-B you · tearsA · go · yearsA · lonely · aloneB · tune · toneB
- 3 -A-A-B-B sorrow · soulA · break · controlA · bosom · sailB · away · wailB
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I am tired to-night, and something, | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| The wind maybe, or the rain, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Or the cry of a bird in the copse outside, | 11 | ·········// |
| Has brought back the past and its pain. | 8 | ········ |
| And I feel, as I sit here thinking, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| That the hand of a dead old June | 8 | ········ |
| Has reached out hold of my heart's loose strings, | 9 | ········· |
| And is drawing them up in tune. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| I am tired to-night, and I miss you, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| And long for you, love, through tears; | 7 | ······· |
| And it seems but to-day that I saw you go-- | 11 | ··········· |
| You, who have been gone for years. | 7 | ······· |
| And I seem to be newly lonely-- | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| I, who am so much alone; | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| And the strings of my heart are well in tune, | 10 | ·········· |
| But they have not the same old tone. | 8 | ········ |
| I am tired; and that old sorrow | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| Sweeps down the bed of my soul, | 7 | ······· |
| As a turbulent river might suddenly break | 10 | ··/˘/˘·/˘· |
| way from a dam's control. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| It beareth a wreck on its bosom, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| A wreck with a snow-white sail; | 7 | ······· |
| And the hand on my heart strings thrums away, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| But they only respond with a wail. | 9 | ··/˘˘/··· |
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.