Why is he wandering on the sea?
"Why is he wandering on the sea?--Coleridge should now with Wordsworth be.By slow degrees he'd steal awayTheir woes, and gently bring a ray(So happily he'd time relief,)Of comfort from their very grief.He'd tell them that their brother dead,When years have passed o'er their head,Will be remembered with such holy,True and tender melancholy,That ever this lost brother JohnWill be their heart's companion.His voice they'll always hear,His face they'll always see;There's naught in life so sweetAs such a memory."
Words in this poem
- happily adv.
- By chance; peradventure; haply. Piers Plowman. [From Happy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Why is he wandering on the sea? is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 3 (of 8), Project Gutenberg ebook #12383; 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, Why is he wandering on the sea?, in The Prelude, and Other Poems (1802–1815), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12383, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wordsworth-vol3/why-is-he-wandering-on-the-sea.html, id L17423.
Form and metre
Why is he wandering on the sea? is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 62% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABBCCDD--EE-A-- seaA · beA · awayB · rayB · reliefC · griefC · deadD · headD · holy · melancholy · johnE · companionE · hear · seeA · sweet · memory
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 |
|---|---|---|
| "Why is he wandering on the sea?-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Coleridge should now with Wordsworth be. | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| By slow degrees he'd steal away | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| Their woes, and gently bring a ray | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| (So happily he'd time relief,) | 8 | ·/˘˘··˘/ |
| Of comfort from their very grief. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| He'd tell them that their brother dead, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| When years have passed o'er their head, | 7 | ······· |
| Will be remembered with such holy, | 9 | ··˘/˘··/˘ |
| True and tender melancholy, | 8 | ··/˘/˘·˘ |
| That ever this lost brother John | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Will be their heart's companion. | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| His voice they'll always hear, | 6 | ···/·· |
| His face they'll always see; | 6 | ···/·· |
| There's naught in life so sweet | 6 | ······ |
| As such a memory." | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
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.