Hexameters
Earth! thou mother of numberless children, the nurse and the mother,Hail! O Goddess, thrice hail! Blest be thou! and, blessing, I hymn thee!Forth, ye sweet sounds! from my harp, and my voice shall float on your surges--Soar thou aloft, O my soul! and bear up my song on thy pinions.
Travelling the vale with mine eyes--green meadows and lake with green island,Dark in its basin of rock, and the bare stream flowing in brightness,
Thrill'd with thy beauty and love in the wooded slope of the mountain,Here, great mother, I lie, thy child, with his head on thy bosom!Playful the spirits of noon, that rushing soft through thy tresses,Green-hair'd goddess! refresh me; and hark! as they hurry or linger,Fill the pause of my harp, or sustain it with musical murmurs.Into my being thou murmurest joy, and tenderest sadnessShedd'st thou, like dew, on my heart, till the joy and the heavenly sadnessPour themselves forth from my heart in tears, and the hymn of thanksgiving.
Earth! thou mother of numberless children, the nurse and the mother,Sister thou of the stars, and beloved by the Sun, the rejoicer!Guardian and friend of the moon, O Earth, whom the comets forget not,Yea, in the measureless distance wheel round and again they behold thee!Fadeless and young (and what if the latest birth of creation?)Bride and consort of Heaven, that looks down upon thee enamour'd!
Say, mysterious Earth! O say, great mother and goddess,Was it not well with thee then, when first thy lap was ungirdled,Thy lap to the genial Heaven, the day that he woo'd thee and won thee!Fair was thy blush, the fairest and first of the blushes of morning!Deep was the shudder, O Earth! the throe of thy self-retention:Inly thou strovest to flee, and didst seek thyself at thy centre!Mightier far was the joy of thy sudden resilience; and forthwithMyriad myriads of lives teem'd forth from the mighty embracement.Thousand-fold tribes of dwellers, impell'd by thousand-fold instincts,Fill'd, as a dream, the wide waters; the rivers sang on their channels;Laugh'd on their shores the hoarse seas; the yearning ocean swell'd upward;Young life low'd through the meadows, the woods, and the echoing mountains,Wander'd bleating in valleys, and warbled on blossoming branches.
Words in this poem 17
- numberless a.
- Innumerable; countless.
- 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,]
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- thanksgiving n.
- The act of rending thanks, or expressing gratitude for favors or mercies.
- rejoicer n.
- One who rejoices.
- measureless a.
- Without measure; unlimited; immeasurable.
- fadeless a.
- Not liable to fade; unfading.
- genial a.
- Contributing to, or concerned in, propagation or production; generative; procreative; productive. [L. genialis: cf. OF. genial. See Genius.]
- throe n.
- Extreme pain; violent pang; anguish; agony; especially, one of the pangs of travail in childbirth, or purturition. [OE. , , AS. a threatening, oppression, suffering, perhaps influenced by Icel. a throe, a pang, a longing; cf. AS. to suffer.]
- inly a.
- Internal; interior; secret. [OE. inlich, AS. inlic. See In.]
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
- forthwith adv.
- Immediately; without delay; directly.
- myriad n.
- The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. [Gr. myriade.]
- embracement n.
- A clasp in the arms; embrace. [Cf. F. embrassement.]
- bleating a.
- Crying as a sheep does.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hexameters is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Coleridge, Project Gutenberg ebook #8208; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Hexameters, in Poems of Coleridge (1796–1817), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8208, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coleridge-poems/hexameters.html, id L00364.
Form and metre
Hexameters is 33 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in common measure. 78% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 15.4 syllables. 26 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 9% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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.
- 3 -----AA- mountain · bosom · tresses · linger · murmurs · sadnessA · sadnessA · thanksgiving
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Earth! thou mother of numberless children, the nurse and the mother, | 16 | ··/˘·/˘˘/˘····/˘ |
| Hail! O Goddess, thrice hail! Blest be thou! and, blessing, I hymn thee! | 15 | ··/˘······/˘··· |
| Forth, ye sweet sounds! from my harp, and my voice shall float on your surges-- | 16 | ··············/˘ |
| Soar thou aloft, O my soul! and bear up my song on thy pinions. | 16 | ··˘/··········/˘ |
| Travelling the vale with mine eyes--green meadows and lake with green island, | 16 | /˘······/·····/˘ |
| Dark in its basin of rock, and the bare stream flowing in brightness, | 15 | ···/˘······/·/˘ |
| Thrill'd with thy beauty and love in the wooded slope of the mountain, | 16 | ···/˘····/˘···/˘ |
| Here, great mother, I lie, thy child, with his head on thy bosom! | 15 | ··/˘·········/˘ |
| Playful the spirits of noon, that rushing soft through thy tresses, | 15 | /˘·/˘···/˘···/˘ |
| Green-hair'd goddess! refresh me; and hark! as they hurry or linger, | 16 | ··/˘˘/·····/˘·/˘ |
| Fill the pause of my harp, or sustain it with musical murmurs. | 15 | ·······˘/··/˘/˘ |
| Into my being thou murmurest joy, and tenderest sadness | 13 | ···/·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Shedd'st thou, like dew, on my heart, till the joy and the heavenly sadness | 16 | ············/˘/˘ |
| Pour themselves forth from my heart in tears, and the hymn of thanksgiving. | 16 | ·˘/···········/˘ |
| Earth! thou mother of numberless children, the nurse and the mother, | 16 | ··/˘·/˘˘/˘····/˘ |
| Sister thou of the stars, and beloved by the Sun, the rejoicer! | 16 | /˘·····˘/····˘/˘ |
| Guardian and friend of the moon, O Earth, whom the comets forget not, | 16 | /˘·········/˘˘/· |
| Yea, in the measureless distance wheel round and again they behold thee! | 17 | ···/˘˘/˘···˘/·˘/· |
| Fadeless and young (and what if the latest birth of creation?) | 15 | /˘······/˘··˘/˘ |
| Bride and consort of Heaven, that looks down upon thee enamour'd! | 15 | ··˘/·/········· |
| Say, mysterious Earth! O say, great mother and goddess, | 13 | ·˘/˘····/˘·/˘ |
| Was it not well with thee then, when first thy lap was ungirdled, | 14 | ·············· |
| Thy lap to the genial Heaven, the day that he woo'd thee and won thee! | 16 | ····/˘/········· |
| Fair was thy blush, the fairest and first of the blushes of morning! | 16 | ·····/˘····/˘·/˘ |
| Deep was the shudder, O Earth! the throe of thy self-retention: | 15 | ···/˘·······˘/˘ |
| Inly thou strovest to flee, and didst seek thyself at thy centre! | 16 | /˘·/˘·····˘/··/˘ |
| Mightier far was the joy of thy sudden resilience; and forthwith | 16 | /˘······/˘˘/˘·// |
| Myriad myriads of lives teem'd forth from the mighty embracement. | 15 | /˘/˘······/˘˘/˘ |
| Thousand-fold tribes of dwellers, impell'd by thousand-fold instincts, | 15 | /˘···/˘˘/·/˘·/˘ |
| Fill'd, as a dream, the wide waters; the rivers sang on their channels; | 16 | ······/˘·/˘···/˘ |
| Laugh'd on their shores the hoarse seas; the yearning ocean swell'd upward; | 14 | ········/˘/·/˘ |
| Young life low'd through the meadows, the woods, and the echoing mountains, | 15 | ·····/·····/˘/˘ |
| Wander'd bleating in valleys, and warbled on blossoming branches. | 15 | /˘/˘·/˘·/˘·/˘/˘ |
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.