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Wordsworth wrote “Intimations of Immortality” in iambic meter, which means that the rhythm follows a da-DUM pattern. However, though the rhythm remains consistent throughout, the number of iambs varies from line to line, which range between two and six feet in length. The poem thus consists of a shifting iambic meter composed of dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, and even hexameter. To see how this shifting meter works, consider the opening stanza as an example (lines 1–9):

There was / a time / when mea- / dow, grove, / and stream,
       The earth, / and ev- /ery com- / mon sight,
                          To me / did seem
                      Ap-par- / elled in / ce-les- / tial light,
            The glo- / ry and / the fresh- / ness of / a dream.
It is / not now / as it / hath been / of yore;—
                      Turn where- / so-e’er / I may,
                          By night / or day.
The things / which I / have seen / I now / can see / no more.

The meter throughout this stanza is almost perfectly iambic, with only subtle deviations that are barely noticeable. For instance, the word “every” in line 2 technically has three syllables, but it’s easy to contract to “ev’ry” to remain in rhythm. The same goes for “celestial” in line 4, the last two syllables of which are easily elided into one syllable: “ce-les-chull.” Otherwise, the lines are perfectly iambic. Yet in contrast to this rhythmic regularity, the line lengths are very irregular, ranging from two to five feet in length in the following pattern: 5 4 2 4 5 5 3 2 5. What’s most notable about this pattern is the way the line length contracts and expands, creating an ebb and flow of language that captures the shifting cadence of the speaker’s thoughts and feelings. A similar effect persists throughout the rest of the poem.

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