When Coldness Wraps This Suffering Clay
When coldness wraps this suffering clay,luAh! whither strays the immortal mind?It cannot die, it cannot stay,But leaves its darkened dust behind.Then, unembodied, doth it traceBy steps each planet's heavenly way?lvOr fill at once the realms of space,A thing of eyes, that all survey?
Eternal--boundless,--undecayed,A thought unseen, but seeing all,All, all in earth, or skies displayed,lwShall it survey, shall it recall:Each fainter trace that Memory holdsSo darkly of departed years,In one broad glance the Soul beholds,And all, that was, at once appears.
Before Creation peopled earth,Its eye shall roll through chaos back;And where the farthest heaven had birth,The Spirit trace its rising track.And where the future mars or makes,Its glance dilate o'er all to be,While Sun is quenched--or System breaks,Fixed in its own Eternity.
Above or Love--Hope--Hate--or Fear,It lives all passionless and pure:An age shall fleet like earthly year;Its years as moments shall endure.Away--away--without a wing,O'er all--through all--its thought shall fly,A nameless and eternal thing,Forgetting what it was to die.
Words in this poem
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
- unembodied a.
- Free from a corporeal body; disembodied; as, unembodied spirits.
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- 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,]
- peopled a.
- Stocked with, or as with, people; inhabited.
- chaos n.
- An empty, immeasurable space; a yawning chasm. [L. chaos chaos (in senses 1 & 2), Gr. Chasm.]
- passionless a.
- Void of passion; without anger or emotion; not easily excited; calm.
- nameless a.
- Without a name; not having been given a name; as, a nameless star.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
When Coldness Wraps This Suffering Clay is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 3, Project Gutenberg ebook #21811; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lord Byron, When Coldness Wraps This Suffering Clay, in The Giaour, and Other Poems (1816), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21811, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-works-3/when-coldness-wraps-this-suffering-clay.html, id L23956.
Form and metre
When Coldness Wraps This Suffering Clay is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 -ABAC-CB clay,lu · mindA · stayB · behindA · traceC · way?lv · spaceC · surveyB
- 2 -A-ABCBC undecayed · allA · displayed,lw · recallA · holdsB · yearsC · beholdsB · appearsC
- 3 ABABC-C- earthA · backB · birthA · trackB · makesC · be · breaksC · eternity
- 4 ABABCDCD fearA · pureB · yearA · endureB · wingC · flyD · thingC · dieD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When coldness wraps this suffering clay,lu | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·· |
| Ah! whither strays the immortal mind? | 9 | ·/˘··˘/˘· |
| It cannot die, it cannot stay, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But leaves its darkened dust behind. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Then, unembodied, doth it trace | 7 | ······· |
| By steps each planet's heavenly way?lv | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| Or fill at once the realms of space, | 8 | ········ |
| A thing of eyes, that all survey? | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Eternal--boundless,--undecayed, | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··˘ |
| A thought unseen, but seeing all, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| All, all in earth, or skies displayed,lw | 9 | ······˘/· |
| Shall it survey, shall it recall: | 8 | ··/···/· |
| Each fainter trace that Memory holds | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| So darkly of departed years, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| In one broad glance the Soul beholds, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And all, that was, at once appears. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Before Creation peopled earth, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Its eye shall roll through chaos back; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And where the farthest heaven had birth, | 8 | ···/˘/·· |
| The Spirit trace its rising track. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And where the future mars or makes, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Its glance dilate o'er all to be, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| While Sun is quenched--or System breaks, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Fixed in its own Eternity. | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| Above or Love--Hope--Hate--or Fear, | 8 | ········ |
| It lives all passionless and pure: | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| An age shall fleet like earthly year; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Its years as moments shall endure. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Away--away--without a wing, | 8 | ˘/˘/···· |
| O'er all--through all--its thought shall fly, | 8 | ········ |
| A nameless and eternal thing, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Forgetting what it was to die. | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
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.