The Fourth Dimension
Truest-hearted of early friends, that EtonLong since gáve to me,--Ah! 'tis all a life-time,--With my faithfully festive auspicationOf Christmas merriment, this idle item.
Plato truly believ'd his archetypalIdēas to possess the fourth dimension:For since our solid is triple, but alwaysIts shade only double, solids as umbraeMust lack equally one dimension also.Could Platovhave avoided or denied it?
So Saint Paul, when in argument opposingTo our earthly bodies bodies celestial,Meant just those pretty Greek aforesaid abstractsOf four Plātonical divine dimensions.
If this be not a holy consolationMore than plumpudding and a turkey roasted,Whereto you but address a third dimension,Try it, pray, as a pill to aid digestion:I can't find anything better to send you.
Words in this poem
- archetypal a.
- Of or pertaining to an archetype; consisting a model (real or ideal) or pattern; original.
- whereto adv.
- To which; -- used relatively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Fourth Dimension 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, The Fourth Dimension, in The Growth of Love, and Other Poems (1873–1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37804, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bridges-shorter-poems/the-fourth-dimension.html, id L01849.
Form and metre
The Fourth Dimension is 19 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.8 syllables. 14 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 42% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic pentameter.
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 -A-A eton · timeA · auspication · itemA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Truest-hearted of early friends, that Eton | 11 | /˘/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| Long since gáve to me,--Ah! 'tis all a life-time,-- | 11 | ··········· |
| With my faithfully festive auspication | 10 | ··/˘/˘···· |
| Of Christmas merriment, this idle item. | 11 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘/˘ |
| Plato truly believ'd his archetypal | 10 | /˘/˘˘/·//˘ |
| Idēas to possess the fourth dimension: | 10 | /˘·˘/··˘/˘ |
| For since our solid is triple, but always | 11 | ··//˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Its shade only double, solids as umbrae | 10 | ··/˘/˘/˘·· |
| Must lack equally one dimension also. | 11 | ··/˘˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| Could Platovhave avoided or denied it? | 11 | ····˘/˘·˘/· |
| So Saint Paul, when in argument opposing | 11 | ·····/˘˘˘/˘ |
| To our earthly bodies bodies celestial, | 11 | ·//˘/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Meant just those pretty Greek aforesaid abstracts | 11 | ···/˘·˘/·/˘ |
| Of four Plātonical divine dimensions. | 11 | ······˘/˘/˘ |
| If this be not a holy consolation | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| More than plumpudding and a turkey roasted, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Whereto you but address a third dimension, | 11 | ˘/··˘/··˘/˘ |
| Try it, pray, as a pill to aid digestion: | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| I can't find anything better to send you. | 11 | ···/˘·/˘··· |
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.