Character
The sun set, but set not his hope:Stars rose; his faith was earlier up:Fixed on the enormous galaxy,Deeper and older seemed his eye;And matched his sufferance sublimeThe taciturnity of time.He spoke, and words more soft than rainBrought the Age of Gold again:His action won such reverence sweetAs hid all measure of the feat.
Words in this poem
- sufferance n.
- The state of suffering; the bearing of pain; endurance. [OE. suffrance, OF. sufrance, soufrance, F. souffrance, L. sufferentia, from sufferens, -entis, p.pr. of sufferre. See Suffer.]
- taciturnity n.
- Habilual silence, or reserve in speaking. [L. taciturnitas: cf. F. taciturnité.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Character is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Household Edition, Project Gutenberg ebook #12843; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Character, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/character.html, id L07482.
Form and metre
Character is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 60% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 ----AABBCC hope · up · galaxy · eye · sublimeA · timeA · rainB · againB · sweetC · featC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The sun set, but set not his hope: | 8 | ········ |
| Stars rose; his faith was earlier up: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Fixed on the enormous galaxy, | 9 | ···˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Deeper and older seemed his eye; | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| And matched his sufferance sublime | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| The taciturnity of time. | 8 | ········ |
| He spoke, and words more soft than rain | 8 | ········ |
| Brought the Age of Gold again: | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| His action won such reverence sweet | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| As hid all measure of the feat. | 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.