Lohengrin
TO have touched Heaven and failed to enter in!Ah, Elsa, prone upon the lonely shore,Watching the swan-wings beat along the blue,Watching the glimmer of the silver mail,Like flash of foam, till all are lost to view,—What may thy sorrow or thy watch avail?He cometh nevermore.
All gone the new hope of thy yesterday,—The tender gaze and strong, like dewy fire,The gracious form with airs of Heaven bedight,The love that warmed thy being like a sun:—Thou hadst thy choice of noonday or of night;Now the swart shadows gather, one by one,To give thee thy desire!
To every life one heavenly chance befalls;To every soul a moment, big with fate,When, grown importunate with need and fear,It cries for help, and lo! from close at hand,The voice Celestial answers, “I am here!”Oh, blessed souls, made wise to understand,Made bravely glad to wait!
But thou, pale watcher on the lonely shore,Where the surf thunders, and the foam-bells fly,Is there no place for penitence and pain,No saving grace in thy all-piteous rue?Will the bright vision never come again?Alas, the swan-wings vanish in the blue,There cometh no reply!
Words in this poem
- nevermore adv.
- Never again; at no time hereafter. Testament of Love. Tyndale.
- bedight v. t.
- To bedeck; to array or equip; to adorn.
- noonday n.
- Midday; twelve o'clock in the day; noon.
- bravely adv.
- In a brave manner; courageously; gallantly; valiantly; splendidly; nobly.
- watcher n.
- One who watches; one who sits up or continues; a diligent observer; specifically, one who attends upon the sick during the night.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lohengrin is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Few More Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #49518; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Susan Coolidge, Lohengrin, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/lohengrin.html, id L23409.
Form and metre
Lohengrin is 28 lines in 4 stanzas of 7 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 -ABCBCA in · shoreA · blueB · mailC · viewB · availC · nevermoreA
- 2 -ABCBCA yesterday · fireA · bedightB · sunC · nightB · oneC · desireA
- 3 -ABCBCA befalls · fateA · fearB · handC · hereB · understandC · waitA
- 4 -ABCBCA shore · flyA · painB · rueC · againB · blueC · replyA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| TO have touched Heaven and failed to enter in! | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Ah, Elsa, prone upon the lonely shore, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Watching the swan-wings beat along the blue, | 10 | /˘····˘/·· |
| Watching the glimmer of the silver mail, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Like flash of foam, till all are lost to view,— | 10 | ·········· |
| What may thy sorrow or thy watch avail? | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| He cometh nevermore. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| All gone the new hope of thy yesterday,— | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The tender gaze and strong, like dewy fire, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| The gracious form with airs of Heaven bedight, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘/ |
| The love that warmed thy being like a sun:— | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Thou hadst thy choice of noonday or of night; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Now the swart shadows gather, one by one, | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| To give thee thy desire! | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| To every life one heavenly chance befalls; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| To every soul a moment, big with fate, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| When, grown importunate with need and fear, | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| It cries for help, and lo! from close at hand, | 10 | ·········· |
| The voice Celestial answers, “I am here!” | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Oh, blessed souls, made wise to understand, | 10 | ··˘·····˘/ |
| Made bravely glad to wait! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But thou, pale watcher on the lonely shore, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Where the surf thunders, and the foam-bells fly, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Is there no place for penitence and pain, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| No saving grace in thy all-piteous rue? | 11 | ·/˘····/˘˘· |
| Will the bright vision never come again? | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Alas, the swan-wings vanish in the blue, | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| There cometh no reply! | 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.