"England! the Time Is Come When Thou Should'St Wean"
This was one of the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty"; afterwards called,
England! the time is come when thou should'st weanThy heart from its emasculating food;The truth should now be better understood;Old things have been unsettled; we have seenFair seed-time, better harvest might have beenBut for thy trespasses; and, at this day,If for Greece, Egypt, India, Africa,Aught good were destined, thou would'st step between.England! all nations in this charge agree:But worse, more ignorant in love and hate,Far--far more abject, is thine Enemy:Therefore the wise pray for thee, though the freightOf thy offences be a heavy weight:Oh grief that Earth's best hopes rest all with Thee!
Words in this poem
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- abject a.
- Cast down; low-lying. [L. abjectus, p. p. of abjicere to throw away; ab + jacere to throw. See Jet a shooting forth.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
"England! the Time Is Come When Thou Should'St Wean" 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, "England! the Time Is Come When Thou Should'St Wean", in The Poetical Works, Volume II (1798–1807), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12145, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wordsworth-vol2/england-the-time-is-come-when-thou-should-st-wean.html, id L17399.
Form and metre
"England! the Time Is Come When Thou Should'St Wean" is 15 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 27% 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.
- 2 A--A---ABC-CCB weanA · food · understood · seenA · been · day · africa · betweenA · agreeB · hateC · enemy · freightC · weightC · theeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| This was one of the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty"; afterwards called, | 15 | ·····/˘/˘·/˘/˘· |
| England! the time is come when thou should'st wean | 10 | /˘········ |
| Thy heart from its emasculating food; | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| The truth should now be better understood; | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Old things have been unsettled; we have seen | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Fair seed-time, better harvest might have been | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| But for thy trespasses; and, at this day, | 10 | ···/·˘···· |
| If for Greece, Egypt, India, Africa, | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| Aught good were destined, thou would'st step between. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| England! all nations in this charge agree: | 10 | /˘·/˘···˘/ |
| But worse, more ignorant in love and hate, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Far--far more abject, is thine Enemy: | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Therefore the wise pray for thee, though the freight | 10 | ·········· |
| Of thy offences be a heavy weight: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Oh grief that Earth's best hopes rest all with Thee! | 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.