by my troth (prepositional phrase)
Idiomatic phrase; "troth" is an archaic (old) version of “truth.” Contemporary phrases that capture roughly the same meaning, in this context, are: “by God” or “I swear” or simply the adverb “truly.”
Wean (verb)
Literally, and most pertinently here, the process of gradually reducing a child’s dependence on breastfeeding once it’s old enough for other kinds of food.
country pleasures (noun phrase)
Juvenile, simple forms of enjoyment; as in the kind of idyllic, innocent pleasures that would often be the subject of later Romantic poetry.
snorted (verb)
Snored (implying sleep)
Den (noun)
a cave or other similar, usually naturally occurring, formations
'twas (prepositional phrase)
archaic contraction of “it was”
good-morrow (noun)
archaic, synonymous with the modern “good morning”
hath (verb)
archaic present-tense form of “has”
sea-discoverers (noun)
poetic descriptive term meaning explorers, i.e., those who explore the world by the sea
sharp north (noun phrase)
poetic phrase evoking the “sharp” cold of the north
declining west (noun phrase)
poetic phrase evoking the west as the direction of the setting sun
slacken (verb)
to go slack, as opposed to “taut”; to lose tension, strength, or form
