Analysis of To The Same (John Dyer)
William Wordsworth 1770 (Wordsworth House) – 1850 (Cumberland)
ENOUGH of climbing toil!--Ambition treads
Here, as 'mid busier scenes, ground steep and rough,
Or slippery even to peril! and each step,
As we for most uncertain recompence
Mount toward the empire of the fickle clouds,
Each weary step, dwarfing the world below,
Induces, for its old familiar sights,
Unacceptable feelings of contempt,
With wonder mixed--that Man could e'er be tied,
In anxious bondage, to such nice array
And formal fellowship of petty things!
--Oh! 'tis the 'heart' that magnifies this life,
Making a truth and beauty of her own;
And moss-grown alleys, circumscribing shades,
And gurgling rills, assist her in the work
More efficaciously than realms outspread,
As in a map, before the adventurer's gaze--
Ocean and Earth contending for regard.
The umbrageous woods are left--how far beneath!
But lo! where darkness seems to guard the mouth
Of yon wild cave, whose jagged brows are fringed
With flaccid threads of ivy, in the still
And sultry air, depending motionless.
Yet cool the space within, and not uncheered
(As whoso enters shall ere long perceive)
By stealthy influx of the timid day
Mingling with night, such twilight to compose
As Numa loved; when, in the Egerian grot,
From the sage Nymph appearing at his wish,
He gained whate'er a regal mind might ask,
Or need, of counsel breathed through lips divine.
Long as the heat shall rage, let that dim cave
Protect us, there deciphering as we may
Diluvian records; or the sighs of Earth
Interpreting; or counting for old Time
His minutes, by reiterated drops,
Audible tears, from some invisible source
That deepens upon fancy--more and more
Drawn toward the centre whence those sighs creep forth
To awe the lightness of humanity:
Or, shutting up thyself within thyself,
There let me see thee sink into a mood
Of gentler thought, protracted till thine eye
Be calm as water when the winds are gone,
And no one can tell whither. Dearest Friend!
We two have known such happy hours together
That, were power granted to replace them (fetched
From out the pensive shadows where they lie)
In the first warmth of their original sunshine,
Loth should I be to use it: passing sweet
Are the domains of tender memory!
Scheme | Text too long |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111010101 11110011101 110010110011 11110101 101010010101 1101100101 0101110101 010010101 11011111011 0101011101 010101101 110111011 1001010101 0111011 01001010001 11111 100101011 1001010101 011111101 1111011101 111111111 1101110001 0101010100 110101011 111011101 110110101 1001111101 11110011 1011010111 1110010111 1111011101 1101111111 01110100111 10110111 100110111 110101001 10011101001 1100110101 10101011111 1101010100 11011011 1111110101 1101010111 1111010111 0111110101 111111010010 1010101111 110101111 00111101001 1111111101 1001110100 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,141 |
Words | 372 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 51 |
Lines Amount | 51 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,729 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 369 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:52 min read
- 109 Views
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"To The Same (John Dyer)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/42453/to-the-same-%28john-dyer%29>.
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