The Little Roads
Alfred Noyes 1880 (Wolverhampton) – 1958 (Isle of Wight)
The great roads are all grown over
That seemed so firm and white.
The deep black forests have covered them.
How should I walk aright?
How should I thread these tangled mazes,
Or grope to that far off light?
I stumble round the thickets, and they turn me
Back to the thickets and the night.
Yet, sometimes, at a word, an elfin pass-word,
(O, thin, deep, sweet with beaded rain!)
There shines, through a mist of ragged-robins,
The old lost April-coloured lane,
That leads me from myself; for, at a whisper,
Where the strong limbs thrust in vain,
At a breath, if my heart help another heart,
The path shines out for me again.
A thin thread, a rambling lane for lovers
To the light of the world's one May,
Where the white dropping flakes may wet our faces
As we lift them to the bloom-bowed spray:
O Master, shall we ask Thee, then, for high-roads,
Or down upon our knees and pray
That Thou wilt ever lose us in Thy little lanes,
And lead us by a wandering way.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 55 sec read
- 105 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABXBXBXB XCXCACXX XDXDXDXD |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 942 |
Words | 183 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
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"The Little Roads" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/1189/the-little-roads>.
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