What soft, cherubic creatures
What soft, cherubic creaturesThese gentlewomen are!One would as soon assault a plushOr violate a star.
Such dimity convictions,A horror so refinedOf freckled human nature,Of Deity ashamed, --
It's such a common glory,A fisherman's degree!Redemption, brittle lady,Be so, ashamed of thee.
Words in this poem
- cherubic a.
- Of or pertaining to cherubs; angelic.
- plush n.
- A textile fabric with a nap or shag on one side, longer and softer than the nap of velvet. [F. pluche, peluche (cf. It. peluzzo), fr. L. pilus hair. See pile hair, and cf. Peruke.]
- dimity n.
- A cotton fabric employed for hangings and furniture coverings, and formerly used for women's under-garments. It is of many patterns, both plain and twilled, and occasionally is printed in colors. [Prob. fr. Gr. diemet, of F. dimite, démitte. Cf. Samite.]
- freckled a.
- Marked with freckles; spotted.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
What soft, cherubic creatures 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, What soft, cherubic creatures, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/what-soft-cherubic-creatures.html, id L19021.
Form and metre
What soft, cherubic creatures is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 creatures · areA · plush · starA
- 3 -A-A glory · degreeA · lady · theeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What soft, cherubic creatures | 7 | ··˘/˘/˘ |
| These gentlewomen are! | 6 | ·/˘·˘· |
| One would as soon assault a plush | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Or violate a star. | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| Such dimity convictions, | 7 | ·/˘˘˘/˘ |
| A horror so refined | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Of freckled human nature, | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Of Deity ashamed, -- | 6 | ·/˘˘˘/ |
| It's such a common glory, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| A fisherman's degree! | 6 | ·/˘˘˘/ |
| Redemption, brittle lady, | 7 | ˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Be so, ashamed of thee. | 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.