The Immortal Word
One soiled and shamed and foiled in this world’s fight,Deserter from the host of God, that hereStill darkly struggles,--waked from death in fear,And strove to screen his forehead from the whiteAnd blinding glory of the awful Light,The revelation and reproach austere.Then with strong hand outstretched a Shape drew near,Bright-browed, majestic, armoured like a knight.
“Great Angel, servant of the Highest, whyStoop’st thou to me?” although his lips were mute,His eyes inquired. The Shining One replied:“Thy Book, thy birth, life of thy life am I,Son of thy soul, thy youth’s forgotten fruit.We two go up to judgment side by side.”
Words in this poem
- armoured a.
- Clad with armor.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Immortal Word 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, The Immortal Word, 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/the-immortal-word.html, id L22088.
Form and metre
The Immortal Word is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 fightA · hereB · fearB · whiteA · lightA · austereB · nearB · knightA
- 2 ABCABC whyA · muteB · repliedC · iA · fruitB · sideC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| One soiled and shamed and foiled in this world’s fight, | 10 | ·········· |
| Deserter from the host of God, that here | 10 | /˘˘······· |
| Still darkly struggles,--waked from death in fear, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And strove to screen his forehead from the white | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And blinding glory of the awful Light, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| The revelation and reproach austere. | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘/ |
| Then with strong hand outstretched a Shape drew near, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Bright-browed, majestic, armoured like a knight. | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| “Great Angel, servant of the Highest, why | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Stoop’st thou to me?” although his lips were mute, | 10 | ·········· |
| His eyes inquired. The Shining One replied: | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| “Thy Book, thy birth, life of thy life am I, | 10 | ·········· |
| Son of thy soul, thy youth’s forgotten fruit. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| We two go up to judgment side by side.” | 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.