A Mystery
That sunless day no living shadow sweptAcross the hills, fleet shadow chasing light,Twin of the sailing cloud: but mists wool-white,Slow-stealing mists, on those heaved shoulders crept,And wrought about the strong hills while they sleptIn witches’ wise, and rapt their forms from sight.Dreams were they; less than dream, the noblest heightAnd farthest; and the chilly woodland wept.
A sunless day and sad: yet all the whileWithin the grave green twilight of the wood,Inscrutable, immutable, apart,Hearkening the brook, whose song she understood,The secret birch-tree kept her silver smile,Strange as the peace that gleams at sorrow’s heart.
Words in this poem
- sunless a.
- Destitute or deprived of the sun or its rays; shaded; shadowed.
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- immutable a.
- Not mutable; not capable or susceptible of change; unchangeable; unalterable. [L. immutabilis; pref. im- not + mutabilis mutable. See Mutable.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Mystery is in the public domain. This text is taken from A chant of love for England, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #71425; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Helen Gray Cone, A Mystery, in A Chant of Love for England, and Other Poems (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #71425, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cone-chant-for-england/a-mystery.html, id L22093.
Form and metre
A Mystery is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 ABBAABBA sweptA · lightB · whiteB · creptA · sleptA · sightB · heightB · weptA
- 2 ABCBAC whileA · woodB · apartC · understoodB · smileA · heartC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| That sunless day no living shadow swept | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/·· |
| Across the hills, fleet shadow chasing light, | 10 | ˘/···/·/˘· |
| Twin of the sailing cloud: but mists wool-white, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Slow-stealing mists, on those heaved shoulders crept, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And wrought about the strong hills while they slept | 10 | ·········· |
| In witches’ wise, and rapt their forms from sight. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Dreams were they; less than dream, the noblest height | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And farthest; and the chilly woodland wept. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/·· |
| A sunless day and sad: yet all the while | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Within the grave green twilight of the wood, | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Inscrutable, immutable, apart, | 10 | ˘/˘˘˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Hearkening the brook, whose song she understood, | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| The secret birch-tree kept her silver smile, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Strange as the peace that gleams at sorrow’s heart. | 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.