Analysis of 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.


Scheme A BCCDDXX EEBBFFGG HHBBIIEXAA
Poetic Form
Metre 11110101 11101100 11110101 00110111 00110111 111111101 11110111 11011111 01011101 01110101 01010111 011100100 110101101 11001111 0111110001 11011101 01110111 11010101 01111 01011100 110110111 11010101 0101011 01010101 110010111 01101101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 907
Words 173
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 1, 7, 8, 10
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 174
Words per stanza (avg) 42
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

52 sec read
203

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was the husband of Eva Bartok. more…

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