Stepping Westward
William Wordsworth 1770 (Wordsworth House) – 1850 (Cumberland)
"What, you are stepping westward?"--"Yea."
---'T would be a wildish destiny,
If we, who thus together roam
In a strange land, and far from home,
Were in this place the guests of Chance:
Yet who would stop, or fear to advance,
Though home or shelter he had none,
With such a sky to lead him on?
The dewy ground was dark and cold;
Behind, all gloomy to behold;
And stepping westward seemed to be
A kind of heavenly destiny:
I liked the greeting; 't was a sound
Of something without place or bound;
And seemed to give me spiritual right
To travel through that region bright.
The voice was soft, and she who spake
Was walking by her native lake:
The salutation had to me
The very sound of courtesy:
Its power was felt; and while my eye
Was fixed upon the glowing sky,
The echo of the voice enwrought
A human sweetness with the thought
Of travelling through the world that lay
Before me in my endless way.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 202 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | A BCCDDXX EEBBFFGG HHBBIIEXAA |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 907 |
Words | 173 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 7, 8, 10 |
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"Stepping Westward" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/42332/stepping-westward>.
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