Ne Plus Ultra
Sole Positive of Night!Antipathist of Light!Fate's only essence! primal scorpion rod--The one permitted opposite of God!--Condensed blackness and abysmal stormCompacted to one sceptreArms the Grasp enorm--The Interceptor--The Substance that still casts the shadowDeath!--The Dragon foul and fell--The unrevealable,And hidden one, whose breathGives wind and fuel to the fires of Hell!--Ah! sole despairOf both the eternities in Heaven!Sole interdict of all-bedewing prayer,The all-compassionate!Save to the Lampads SevenReveal'd to none of all the Angelic State,Save to the Lampads Seven,That watch the throne of Heaven!
Words in this poem
- antipathist n.
- One who has an antipathy.
- primal a.
- First; primary; original; chief. [LL. primalis, fr. L. primus the first. See Prime, a.]
- abysmal a.
- Pertaining to, or resembling, an abyss; bottomless; unending; profound.
- sceptre n.
- A staff or baton borne by a sovereign, as a ceremonial badge or emblem of authority; a royal mace. [F. sceptre, L. sceptrum, from Gr. shaft. See Shaft, and cf. Scape a stem, shaft.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ne Plus Ultra 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, Ne Plus Ultra, in Poems of Coleridge (1796–1817), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8208, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coleridge-poems/ne-plus-ultra.html, id L00351.
Form and metre
Ne Plus Ultra is 22 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 27% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 AABBCDCD-EF-EFGHGIHIHH nightA · lightA · rodB · godB · stormC · sceptreD · enormC · interceptorD · shadow · deathE · fellF · unrevealable · breathE · hellF · despairG · heavenH · prayerG · compassionateI · sevenH · stateI · sevenH · heavenH
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sole Positive of Night! | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| Antipathist of Light! | 6 | ˘/˘˘·· |
| Fate's only essence! primal scorpion rod-- | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| The one permitted opposite of God!-- | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘˘·· |
| Condensed blackness and abysmal storm | 10 | ˘/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Compacted to one sceptre | 7 | ˘/˘··/˘ |
| Arms the Grasp enorm-- | 5 | ···˘/ |
| The Interceptor-- | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| The Substance that still casts the shadow | 9 | ·/˘····/· |
| Death!-- | 1 | · |
| The Dragon foul and fell-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The unrevealable, | 6 | ······ |
| And hidden one, whose breath | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Gives wind and fuel to the fires of Hell!-- | 10 | ···/··/˘·· |
| Ah! sole despair | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Of both the eternities in Heaven! | 10 | ···˘/˘˘·/˘ |
| Sole interdict of all-bedewing prayer, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The all-compassionate! | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| Save to the Lampads Seven | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Reveal'd to none of all the Angelic State, | 11 | ˘/······/˘· |
| Save to the Lampads Seven, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| That watch the throne of Heaven! | 7 | ·····/˘ |
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.