The Holy of Holies
'Elder father, though thine eyesShine with hoary mysteries,Canst thou tell what in the heartOf a cowslip blossom lies?
'Smaller than all lives that be,Secret as the deepest sea,Stands a little house of seeds,Like an elfin's granary,
'Speller of the stones and weeds,Skilled in Nature's crafts and creeds,Tell me what is in the heartOf the smallest of the seeds.'
'God Almighty, and with HimCherubim and Seraphim,Filling all eternity--Adonai Elohim.'
Words in this poem
- hoary a.
- White or whitish."The hoary willows."
- cowslip n.
- A common flower in England (Primula veris) having yellow blossoms and appearing in early spring. It is often cultivated in the United States. [AS. c, c, prob. orig., cow's droppings. Cf. Slop, n.]
- cherubim n.
- The Hebrew plural of Cherub.. Cf. Seraphim.
- seraphim n.
- The Hebrew plural of Seraph. Cf. Cherubim.
- adonai n.
- A Hebrew name for God, usually translated in the Old Testament by the word
- elohim n.
- One of the principal names by which God is designated in the Hebrew Scriptures. [Heb.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Holy of Holies 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, The Holy of Holies, in The Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12037, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/chesterton-wild-knight/the-holy-of-holies.html, id L17148.
Form and metre
The Holy of Holies is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 AA-A eyesA · mysteriesA · heart · liesA
- 2 AA-- beA · seaA · seeds · granary
- 3 AA-A weedsA · creedsA · heart · seedsA
- 4 -A-A him · seraphimA · eternity · elohimA
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| 'Elder father, though thine eyes | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Shine with hoary mysteries, | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| Canst thou tell what in the heart | 7 | ······· |
| Of a cowslip blossom lies? | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| 'Smaller than all lives that be, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Secret as the deepest sea, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Stands a little house of seeds, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Like an elfin's granary, | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| 'Speller of the stones and weeds, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Skilled in Nature's crafts and creeds, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Tell me what is in the heart | 7 | ······· |
| Of the smallest of the seeds.' | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| 'God Almighty, and with Him | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Cherubim and Seraphim, | 7 | /˘˘·/˘˘ |
| Filling all eternity-- | 7 | /˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Adonai Elohim.' | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
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.