Extreme Unction
Upon the eyes, the lips, the feet,On all the passages of sense,The atoning oil is spread with sweetRenewal of lost innocence.
The feet, that lately ran so fastTo meet desire, are soothly sealed;The eyes, that were so often castOn vanity, are touched and healed.
From troublous sights and sounds set free;In such a twilight hour of breath,Shall one retrace his life, or see,Through shadows, the true face of death?
Vials of mercy! Sacring oils!I know not where nor when I come,Nor through what wanderings and toils,To crave of you Viaticum.
Yet, when the walls of flesh grow weak,In such an hour, it well may be,Through mist and darkness, light will break,And each anointed sense will see.
Words in this poem
- soothly adv.
- In truth; truly; really; verily.
- troublous a.
- Full of trouble; causing trouble.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- retrace v. t.
- To trace back, as a line. [Pref. re- + trace: cf. F. retracer. Cf. Retract.]
- sacring
- a. & n. from Sacre. Sacring bell. See Sanctus bell, under Sanctus.
- crave v. t.
- To ask with earnestness or importunity; to ask with submission or humility; to beg; to entreat; to beseech; to implore. [AS. crafian; akin to Icel. krefia, Sw. kr, Dan. kr.]
- viaticum n.
- An allowance for traveling expenses made to those who were sent into the provinces to exercise any office or perform any service. [L., from viaticus, a. See Viatic.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Extreme Unction is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson, With a Memoir by Arthur Symons, Project Gutenberg ebook #8497; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ernest Dowson, Extreme Unction, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/extreme-unction.html, id L01649.
Form and metre
Extreme Unction is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 15% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABAB feetA · senseB · sweetA · innocenceB
- 2 ABAB fastA · sealedB · castA · healedB
- 3 ABAB freeA · breathB · seeA · deathB
- 4 ABAB oilsA · comeB · toilsA · viaticumB
- 5 ABAB weakA · beB · breakA · seeB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Upon the eyes, the lips, the feet, | 8 | ········ |
| On all the passages of sense, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| The atoning oil is spread with sweet | 9 | ·˘/˘····· |
| Renewal of lost innocence. | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| The feet, that lately ran so fast | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To meet desire, are soothly sealed; | 10 | ··˘/˘·/˘·˘ |
| The eyes, that were so often cast | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| On vanity, are touched and healed. | 10 | ·/˘˘··˘··˘ |
| From troublous sights and sounds set free; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In such a twilight hour of breath, | 9 | ···/·/˘·· |
| Shall one retrace his life, or see, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Through shadows, the true face of death? | 8 | ·/······ |
| Vials of mercy! Sacring oils! | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| I know not where nor when I come, | 8 | ········ |
| Nor through what wanderings and toils, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| To crave of you Viaticum. | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| Yet, when the walls of flesh grow weak, | 8 | ········ |
| In such an hour, it well may be, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Through mist and darkness, light will break, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And each anointed sense will see. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
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.