The Age of Gold
The clouds that tower in storm, that beatArterial thunder in their veins;The wildflowers lifting, shyly sweet,Their perfect faces from the plains,--All high, all lowly things of EarthFor no vague end have had their birth.
Low strips of mist that mesh the moonAbove the foaming waterfall;And mountains, that God's hand hath hewn,And forests, where the great winds call,--Within the grasp of such as seeAre parts of a conspiracy;
To seize the soul with beauty; holdThe heart with love: and thus fulfillWithin ourselves the Age of Gold,That never died, and never will,--As long as one true nature feelsThe wonders that the world reveals.
Words in this poem
- shyly adv.
- In a shy or timid manner; not familiarly; with reserve.
- mesh n.
- The opening or space inclosed by the threads of a net between knot and knot, or the threads inclosing such a space; network; a net. [AS. masc, max, m; akin to D. maas, masche, OHG. masca, Icel. möskvi; cf. Lith. mazgas a knot, megsti to weave nets, to knot.]
- fulfill v. t.
- To fill up; to make full or complete. [OE. fulfillen, fulfullen, AS. fulfyllan; ful full + fyllan to fill. See Full, a., and Fill, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Age of Gold 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, The Age of Gold, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/the-age-of-gold.html, id L10949.
Form and metre
The Age of Gold is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 39% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABABCC beatA · veinsB · sweetA · plainsB · earthC · birthC
- 2 ABAB-- moonA · waterfallB · hewnA · callB · see · conspiracy
- 3 ABABCC holdA · fulfillB · goldA · willB · feelsC · revealsC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The clouds that tower in storm, that beat | 8 | ···/···· |
| Arterial thunder in their veins; | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| The wildflowers lifting, shyly sweet, | 8 | ·/·/˘/˘· |
| Their perfect faces from the plains,-- | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| All high, all lowly things of Earth | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For no vague end have had their birth. | 8 | ········ |
| Low strips of mist that mesh the moon | 8 | ········ |
| Above the foaming waterfall; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And mountains, that God's hand hath hewn, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And forests, where the great winds call,-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Within the grasp of such as see | 8 | ········ |
| Are parts of a conspiracy; | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| To seize the soul with beauty; hold | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The heart with love: and thus fulfill | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Within ourselves the Age of Gold, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| That never died, and never will,-- | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| As long as one true nature feels | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The wonders that the world reveals. | 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.