Accident in Art
That painter has not with a careless smutchAccomplished his despair?--one touch revealingAll he had put of life, thought, vigor, feeling,Into the canvas that without that touchShowed of his love and labor just so muchRaw pigment, scarce a scrap of soul concealing!What poet has not found his spirit kneelingA sudden at the sound of such or suchStrange verses staring from his manuscript,Written he knows not how, but which will soundLike trumpets down the years? So AccidentItself unmasks the likeness of Intent,And ever in blind Chance's darkest cryptThe shrine-lamp of God's purposing is found.
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- scrap n.
- Something scraped off; hence, a small piece; a bit; a fragment; a detached, incomplete portion. [OE. scrappe, fr. Icel. skrap trifle, cracking. See Scrape, v. t.]
- trumpets n.
- A plant (Sarracenia flava) with long, hollow leaves.
- crypt n.
- A vault wholly or partly under ground; especially, a vault under a church, whether used for burial purposes or for a subterranean chapel or oratory. [L. crypta vault, crypt, Gr. Crot, Crotto.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Accident in Art is in the public domain. This text is taken from More Songs From Vagabondia, Project Gutenberg ebook #18007; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bliss Carman, Accident in Art, in More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18007, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-vagabondia/accident-in-art.html, id L24734.
Form and metre
Accident in Art is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDEECD. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic 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 ABBAABBACDEECD smutchA · revealingB · feelingB · touchA · muchA · concealingB · kneelingB · suchA · manuscriptC · soundD · accidentE · intentE · cryptC · foundD
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| That painter has not with a careless smutch | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Accomplished his despair?--one touch revealing | 11 | ˘/˘·˘/··˘/˘ |
| All he had put of life, thought, vigor, feeling, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Into the canvas that without that touch | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Showed of his love and labor just so much | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Raw pigment, scarce a scrap of soul concealing! | 11 | ·/˘·····˘/˘ |
| What poet has not found his spirit kneeling | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| A sudden at the sound of such or such | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Strange verses staring from his manuscript, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Written he knows not how, but which will sound | 10 | /˘········ |
| Like trumpets down the years? So Accident | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| Itself unmasks the likeness of Intent, | 10 | ˘/˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| And ever in blind Chance's darkest crypt | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| The shrine-lamp of God's purposing is found. | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
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.