The Visionary
Silent is the house: all are laid asleep:One alone looks out o'er the snow-wreaths deep,Watching every cloud, dreading every breezeThat whirls the wildering drift, and bends the groaning trees.
Cheerful is the hearth, soft the matted floor;Not one shivering gust creeps through pane or door;The little lamp burns straight, its rays shoot strong and far:I trim it well, to be the wanderer's guiding-star.
Frown, my haughty sire! chide, my angry dame!Set your slaves to spy; threaten me with shame:But neither sire nor dame, nor prying serf shall know,What angel nightly tracks that waste of frozen snow.
What I love shall come like visitant of air,Safe in secret power from lurking human snare;What loves me, no word of mine shall e'er betray,Though for faith unstained my life must forfeit pay
Burn, then, little lamp; glimmer straight and clear--Hush! a rustling wing stirs, methinks, the air:He for whom I wait, thus ever comes to me;Strange Power! I trust thy might; trust thou my constancy.
Words in this poem
- wildering n.
- A plant growing in a state of nature; especially, one which has run wild, or escaped from cultivation.
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
- haughty a.
- High; lofty; bold. [OE. hautein, F. hautain, fr. haut high, OF. also halt, fr. L. altus. See Altitude.]
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
- angry a.
- Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [See Anger.]
- dame n.
- A mistress of a family, who is a lady; a womam in authority; especially, a lady. [F. dame, LL. domna, fr. L. domina mistress, lady, fem. of dominus master, ruler, lord; akin to domare to tame, subdue. See Tame, and cf. Dam mother, Dan, Danger]
- prying a.
- Inspecting closely or impertinently.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- nightly a.
- Of or pertaining to the night, or to every night; happening or done by night, or every night; as, nightly shades; he kept nightly vigils.
- visitant n.
- One who visits; a guest; a visitor. [L. visitans, -antis; p. pr.: cf. F. visitant.]
- methinks v.
- It seems to me; I think. See Me. [AS. þyncan to seem, me þynceedh, me þuhte, OE. me thinketh, me thoughte; akin to G. dünken to seem, denken to think, and E. think. See Me, and Think.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Visionary is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, Project Gutenberg ebook #1019; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, The Visionary, in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1019, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bronte-poems/the-visionary.html, id L13282.
Form and metre
The Visionary is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 72%). 84% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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 AABB asleepA · deepA · breezeB · treesB
- 2 AABB floorA · doorA · farB · starB
- 3 AABB dameA · shameA · knowB · snowB
- 4 AABB airA · snareA · betrayB · payB
- 5 AA-- clearA · airA · me · constancy
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Silent is the house: all are laid asleep: | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| One alone looks out o'er the snow-wreaths deep, | 10 | ·˘/······· |
| Watching every cloud, dreading every breeze | 10 | /˘/˘·/˘/˘· |
| That whirls the wildering drift, and bends the groaning trees. | 12 | ···/˘····/˘· |
| Cheerful is the hearth, soft the matted floor; | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Not one shivering gust creeps through pane or door; | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| The little lamp burns straight, its rays shoot strong and far: | 12 | ·/˘········· |
| I trim it well, to be the wanderer's guiding-star. | 12 | ·······/˘/˘· |
| Frown, my haughty sire! chide, my angry dame! | 10 | ··/˘/··/˘· |
| Set your slaves to spy; threaten me with shame: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But neither sire nor dame, nor prying serf shall know, | 12 | ·/˘/···/˘··· |
| What angel nightly tracks that waste of frozen snow. | 12 | ·/˘/˘····/˘· |
| What I love shall come like visitant of air, | 11 | ······/˘˘·· |
| Safe in secret power from lurking human snare; | 11 | ··/˘/·/˘/˘· |
| What loves me, no word of mine shall e'er betray, | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| Though for faith unstained my life must forfeit pay | 11 | ···˘/···/˘· |
| Burn, then, little lamp; glimmer straight and clear-- | 10 | ··/˘·/˘··· |
| Hush! a rustling wing stirs, methinks, the air: | 10 | ··/˘··˘/·· |
| He for whom I wait, thus ever comes to me; | 10 | ······/··· |
| Strange Power! I trust thy might; trust thou my constancy. | 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.