Revealment
A sense of sadness in the golden air;A pensiveness, that has no part in care,As if the Season, by some woodland pool,Braiding the early blossoms in her hair,Seeing her loveliness reflected there,Had sighed to find herself so beautiful.
A breathlessness; a feeling as of fear;Holy and dim, as of a mystery near,As if the World, about us, whispering wentWith lifted finger and hand-hollowed ear,Hearkening a music, that we cannot hear,Haunting the quickening earth and firmament.
A prescience of the soul that has no name;Expectancy that is both wild and tame,As if the Earth, from out its azure ringOf heavens, looked to see, as white as flame,--As Perseus once to chained Andromeda came,--The swift, divine revealment of the Spring.
Words in this poem
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- pensiveness n.
- The state of being pensive; serious thoughtfulness; seriousness. Hooker.
- braiding n.
- The act of making or using braids.
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
- breathlessness n.
- The state of being breathless or out of breath.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- quickening n.
- The act or process of making or of becoming quick.
- firmament n.
- Fixed foundation; established basis. [L. firmamentum, fr. firmare to make firm: cf. F. firmament. See Firm, v. & a.]
- expectancy n.
- The act of expecting ; expectation.
- perseus n.
- A Grecian legendary hero, son of Jupiter and Danaë, who slew the Gorgon Medusa.
- andromeda n.
- A northern constellation, supposed to represent the mythical Andromeda.
- revealment n.
- Act of revealing.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Revealment is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #7796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Madison Julius Cawein, Revealment, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/revealment.html, id L10867.
Form and metre
Revealment is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABAAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 11% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABAAB airA · careA · poolB · hairA · thereA · beautifulB
- 2 AABAAB fearA · nearA · wentB · earA · hearA · firmamentB
- 3 AABAAB nameA · tameA · ringB · flameA · cameA · springB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A sense of sadness in the golden air; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| A pensiveness, that has no part in care, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| As if the Season, by some woodland pool, | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| Braiding the early blossoms in her hair, | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Seeing her loveliness reflected there, | 10 | /˘·/˘˘˘/˘· |
| Had sighed to find herself so beautiful. | 10 | ····˘/·/˘˘ |
| A breathlessness; a feeling as of fear; | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Holy and dim, as of a mystery near, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| As if the World, about us, whispering went | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With lifted finger and hand-hollowed ear, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Hearkening a music, that we cannot hear, | 11 | ····/˘··/˘· |
| Haunting the quickening earth and firmament. | 11 | /˘·/˘˘··/˘˘ |
| A prescience of the soul that has no name; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Expectancy that is both wild and tame, | 10 | ˘/˘˘······ |
| As if the Earth, from out its azure ring | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Of heavens, looked to see, as white as flame,-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| As Perseus once to chained Andromeda came,-- | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| The swift, divine revealment of the Spring. | 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.