Thel IV
The eternal gates terrific porter lifted the northern bar:Thel enter'd in & saw the secrets of the land unknown;She saw the couches of the dead, & where the fibrous rootsOf every heart on earth infixes deep its restless twists:A land of sorrows & of tears where never smile was seen.
She wandered in the land of clouds thro' valleys dark, listningDolors & lamentations: waiting oft beside the dewy graveShe stood in silence, listning to the voices of the ground,Till to her own grave plot she came, & there she sat down.And heard this voice of sorrow breathed from the hollow pit.
Why cannot the Ear be closed to its own destruction?Or the glistening Eye to the poison of a smile!Why are Eyelids stord with arrows ready drawn,Where a thousand fighting men in ambush lie!Or an Eye of gifts & graces showring fruits & coined gold!
Why a Tongue impress'd with honey from every wind?Why an Ear, a whirlpool fierce to draw creations in?Why a Nostril wide inhaling terror trembling & affrightWhy a tender curb upon the youthful burning boy?Why a little curtain of flesh on the bed of our desire?
The Virgin started from her seat, & with a shriek,Fled back unhinderd till she came into the vales of Har.
About this text
Thel IV is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of William Blake, Project Gutenberg ebook #574; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Blake, Thel IV, in Poems of William Blake (1783–1794), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #574, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/blake-poems/thel-iv.html, id L02031.
Form and metre
Thel IV is 22 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic heptameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 3 A-A-- destructionA · smile · drawnA · lie · gold
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The eternal gates terrific porter lifted the northern bar: | 16 | ·˘/˘·˘/˘/˘/˘·/˘· |
| Thel enter'd in & saw the secrets of the land unknown; | 13 | ·/˘···/˘···˘/ |
| She saw the couches of the dead, & where the fibrous roots | 13 | ···/˘·····/˘· |
| Of every heart on earth infixes deep its restless twists: | 14 | ·/˘········/˘· |
| A land of sorrows & of tears where never smile was seen. | 13 | ···/˘···/˘··· |
| She wandered in the land of clouds thro' valleys dark, listning | 14 | ·/˘······/˘··· |
| Dolors & lamentations: waiting oft beside the dewy grave | 15 | ······/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| She stood in silence, listning to the voices of the ground, | 14 | ···/˘····/˘··· |
| Till to her own grave plot she came, & there she sat down. | 12 | ············ |
| And heard this voice of sorrow breathed from the hollow pit. | 13 | ·····/˘···/˘· |
| Why cannot the Ear be closed to its own destruction? | 13 | ·/˘·······˘/˘ |
| Or the glistening Eye to the poison of a smile! | 13 | ··/˘˘···/˘··· |
| Why are Eyelids stord with arrows ready drawn, | 11 | ··/···/˘/˘· |
| Where a thousand fighting men in ambush lie! | 11 | ··/˘/˘··/·· |
| Or an Eye of gifts & graces showring fruits & coined gold! | 13 | ·····/˘/˘˘··· |
| Why a Tongue impress'd with honey from every wind? | 13 | ···˘/·/˘·/˘˘· |
| Why an Ear, a whirlpool fierce to draw creations in? | 13 | ····/····˘/˘· |
| Why a Nostril wide inhaling terror trembling & affright | 14 | ··/˘·˘/˘/˘/˘˘/ |
| Why a tender curb upon the youthful burning boy? | 13 | ··/˘····/˘/˘· |
| Why a little curtain of flesh on the bed of our desire? | 15 | ··/˘/˘······/˘/ |
| The Virgin started from her seat, & with a shriek, | 11 | ·/˘/˘······ |
| Fled back unhinderd till she came into the vales of Har. | 14 | ·············· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.