Poem IX
Open for me the gates of delight,The gates of the garden of man's desire;Where spirits touch'd by heavenly fireHave planted the trees of life.--Their branches in beauty are spread,Their fruit divineTo the nations is given for bread,And crush'd into wine.
To thee, O man, the sun his truth hath given,The moon hath whisper'd in love her silvery dreams;Night hath unlockt the starry heaven,The sea the trust of his streams:And the rapture of woodland springIs stay'd in its flying;And Death cannot stingIts beauty undying.
Fear and Pity disentwineTheir aching beams in colours fine;Pain and woe forgo their might.After darkness thy leaping sight,After dumbness thy dancing sound,After fainting thy heavenly flight,After sorrow thy pleasure crown'd:O enter the garden of thy delight,Thy solace is found.
Words in this poem
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- undying a.
- Not dying; imperishable; unending; immortal; as, the undying souls of men.
- disentwine v. t.
- To free from being entwined or twisted. Shelley.
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
- forgo v. t.
- To pass by; to leave. See 1st Forego. [OE. forgan, forgon, forgoon, AS. forgan, prop., to go past, hence, to abstain from; pref. for- + gan to go; akin to G. vergehen to pass away, to transgress. See]
- dumbness n.
- The quality or state of being dumb; muteness; silence; inability to speak.
- solace n.
- Comfort in grief; alleviation of grief or anxiety; also, that which relieves in distress; that which cheers or consoles; relief. [OF. solas, ssoulaz, L. solacium, solatium, fr. solari to comfort, console. Cf. Console, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poem IX is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Excluding the Eight Dramas, Project Gutenberg ebook #37804; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Bridges, Poem IX, in The Growth of Love, and Other Poems (1873–1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37804, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bridges-shorter-poems/poem-ix.html, id L01841.
Form and metre
Poem IX is 25 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 79% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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.
- 1 -AA-BCBC delight · desireA · fireA · life · spreadB · divineC · breadB · wineC
- 2 -A-ABCBC given · dreamsA · heaven · streamsA · springB · flyingC · stingB · undyingC
- 3 AABBCBCBC disentwineA · fineA · mightB · sightB · soundC · flightB · crown'dC · delightB · foundC
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 iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Open for me the gates of delight, | 9 | /˘·····˘/ |
| The gates of the garden of man's desire; | 11 | ····/˘··˘/˘ |
| Where spirits touch'd by heavenly fire | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘/˘ |
| Have planted the trees of life.-- | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Their branches in beauty are spread, | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| Their fruit divine | 4 | ··˘/ |
| To the nations is given for bread, | 9 | ··/˘·/˘·· |
| And crush'd into wine. | 5 | ····· |
| To thee, O man, the sun his truth hath given, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| The moon hath whisper'd in love her silvery dreams; | 11 | ···/˘···/˘· |
| Night hath unlockt the starry heaven, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| The sea the trust of his streams: | 7 | ······· |
| And the rapture of woodland spring | 8 | ··/˘·/·· |
| Is stay'd in its flying; | 6 | ····/˘ |
| And Death cannot sting | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Its beauty undying. | 6 | ·/˘˘/˘ |
| Fear and Pity disentwine | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Their aching beams in colours fine; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Pain and woe forgo their might. | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| After darkness thy leaping sight, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| After dumbness thy dancing sound, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| After fainting thy heavenly flight, | 9 | ··/˘·/˘˘· |
| After sorrow thy pleasure crown'd: | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| O enter the garden of thy delight, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘··˘/ |
| Thy solace is found. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
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.