Eternity
On this wondrous sea,Sailing silently,Ho! pilot, ho!Knowest thou the shoreWhere no breakers roar,Where the storm is o'er?
In the silent westMany sails at rest,Their anchors fast;Thither I pilot thee, --Land, ho! Eternity!Ashore at last!
Words in this poem
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Eternity 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, Eternity, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/eternity.html, id L03823.
Form and metre
Eternity is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 ---AA- sea · silently · ho · shoreA · roarA · o'er
- 2 AAB--B westA · restA · fastB · thee · eternity · lastB
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 trochaic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| On this wondrous sea, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Sailing silently, | 5 | /˘/˘˘ |
| Ho! pilot, ho! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Knowest thou the shore | 5 | /˘··· |
| Where no breakers roar, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Where the storm is o'er? | 5 | ····· |
| In the silent west | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Many sails at rest, | 5 | /˘··· |
| Their anchors fast; | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Thither I pilot thee, -- | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Land, ho! Eternity! | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| Ashore at last! | 4 | ˘/·· |
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.