Eternities
I cannot count the pebbles in the brook.Well hath He spoken: 'Swear not by thy head,Thou knowest not the hairs,' though He, we read,Writes that wild number in his own strange book.
I cannot count the sands or search the seas,Death cometh, and I leave so much untrod.Grant my immortal aureole, O my God,And I will name the leaves upon the trees.
In heaven I shall stand on gold and glass,Still brooding earth's arithmetic to spell;Or see the fading of the fires of hellEre I have thanked my God for all the grass.
Words in this poem
- aureole n.
- A celestial crown or accidental glory added to the bliss of heaven, as a reward to those (as virgins, martyrs, preachers, etc.) who have overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. [F. auréole, fr. L. aureola, (fem adj.) of gold (sc. corona crown), dim. of aureus. See Aureate, Oriole.]
- 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,]
- fading n.
- An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Eternities is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Wild Knight and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #12037; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: G. K. Chesterton, Eternities, in The Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12037, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/chesterton-wild-knight/eternities.html, id L17139.
Form and metre
Eternities is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 8% 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 ABBA brookA · headB · readB · bookA
- 2 ABBA seasA · untrodB · godB · treesA
- 3 ABBA glassA · spellB · hellB · grassA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I cannot count the pebbles in the brook. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Well hath He spoken: 'Swear not by thy head, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Thou knowest not the hairs,' though He, we read, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Writes that wild number in his own strange book. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I cannot count the sands or search the seas, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Death cometh, and I leave so much untrod. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Grant my immortal aureole, O my God, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| And I will name the leaves upon the trees. | 10 | ·········· |
| In heaven I shall stand on gold and glass, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Still brooding earth's arithmetic to spell; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Or see the fading of the fires of hell | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| Ere I have thanked my God for all the grass. | 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.