Dirge
Mourn, Shepherd, near thy old grey stone;Thou Angler, by the silent flood;And mourn when thou art all alone,Thou Woodman, in the distant wood!
Thou one blind Sailor, rich in joyThough blind, thy tunes in sadness hum;And mourn, thou poor half-witted Boy!Born deaf, and living deaf and dumb.
Thou drooping sick Man, bless the GuideWho checked or turned thy headstrong youth,As he before had sanctifiedThy infancy with heavenly truth.
Ye Striplings, light of heart and gay,Bold settlers on some foreign shore,Give, when your thoughts are turned this way,A sigh to him whom we deplore.
For us who here in funeral strainWith one accord our voices raise,Let sorrow overcharged with painBe lost in thankfulness and praise.
And when our hearts shall feel a stingFrom ill we meet or good we miss,May touches of his memory bringFond healing, like a mother's kiss.
Words in this poem
- woodman n.
- A forest officer appointed to take care of the king's woods; a forester. [Eng.]
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- sanctified a.
- Made holy; also, made to have the air of sanctity; sanctimonious.
- deplore v. t.
- To feel or to express deep and poignant grief for; to bewail; to lament; to mourn; to sorrow over. [L. deplorare; de- + plorare to cry out, wail, lament; prob. akin to pluere to rain, and to E. flow: cf. F. déplorer. Cf. Flow.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dirge is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 2 (of 8), Project Gutenberg ebook #12145; 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 Wordsworth, Dirge, in The Poetical Works, Volume II (1798–1807), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12145, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wordsworth-vol2/dirge.html, id L17301.
Form and metre
Dirge is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABAB stoneA · floodB · aloneA · woodB
- 2 ABAB joyA · humB · boyA · dumbB
- 3 ABAB guideA · youthB · sanctifiedA · truthB
- 4 ABAB gayA · shoreB · wayA · deploreB
- 5 ABAB strainA · raiseB · painA · praiseB
- 6 ABAB stingA · missB · bringA · kissB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Mourn, Shepherd, near thy old grey stone; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Thou Angler, by the silent flood; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And mourn when thou art all alone, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Thou Woodman, in the distant wood! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Thou one blind Sailor, rich in joy | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Though blind, thy tunes in sadness hum; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And mourn, thou poor half-witted Boy! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Born deaf, and living deaf and dumb. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thou drooping sick Man, bless the Guide | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Who checked or turned thy headstrong youth, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| As he before had sanctified | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Thy infancy with heavenly truth. | 8 | ·/˘·/˘˘· |
| Ye Striplings, light of heart and gay, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Bold settlers on some foreign shore, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Give, when your thoughts are turned this way, | 8 | ········ |
| A sigh to him whom we deplore. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| For us who here in funeral strain | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With one accord our voices raise, | 8 | ··˘///˘· |
| Let sorrow overcharged with pain | 8 | ·/˘/˘/·· |
| Be lost in thankfulness and praise. | 8 | ········ |
| And when our hearts shall feel a sting | 8 | ··/····· |
| From ill we meet or good we miss, | 8 | ········ |
| May touches of his memory bring | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Fond healing, like a mother's kiss. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
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.