A Tempest
An awful tempest mashed the air,The clouds were gaunt and few;A black, as of a spectre's cloak,Hid heaven and earth from view.
The creatures chuckled on the roofsAnd whistled in the air,And shook their fists and gnashed their teeth.And swung their frenzied hair.
The morning lit, the birds arose;The monster's faded eyesTurned slowly to his native coast,And peace was Paradise!
Words in this poem
- gaunt a.
- Attenuated, as with fasting or suffering; lean; meager; pinched and grim. [Cf. Norw. gand a thin pointed stick, a tall and thin man, and W. gwan weak.]
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Tempest is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, A Tempest, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/a-tempest.html, id L03690.
Form and metre
A Tempest is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 17% 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.
- 1 -A-A air · fewA · cloak · viewA
- 2 -A-A roofs · airA · teeth · hairA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| An awful tempest mashed the air, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The clouds were gaunt and few; | 6 | ······ |
| A black, as of a spectre's cloak, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Hid heaven and earth from view. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| The creatures chuckled on the roofs | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And whistled in the air, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And shook their fists and gnashed their teeth. | 8 | ········ |
| And swung their frenzied hair. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The morning lit, the birds arose; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| The monster's faded eyes | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Turned slowly to his native coast, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And peace was Paradise! | 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.