Cosmos
Who saw the hid beginningsWhen Chaos and Order strove,Or who can date the morning.The purple flaming of love?
I saw the hid beginningsWhen Chaos and Order strove,And I can date the morning primeAnd purple flame of love.
Song breathed from all the forest,The total air was fame;It seemed the world was all torchesThat suddenly caught the flame.
Is there never a retroscope mirrorIn the realms and corners of spaceThat can give us a glimpse of the battleAnd the soldiers face to face?
Sit here on the basalt coursesWhere twisted hills betrayThe seat of the world-old ForcesWho wrestled here on a day.
When the purple flame shoots up,And Love ascends his throne,I cannot hear your songs, O birds,For the witchery of my own.
And every human heartStill keeps that golden dayAnd rings the bells of jubileeOn its own First of May.
Words in this poem
- chaos n.
- An empty, immeasurable space; a yawning chasm. [L. chaos chaos (in senses 1 & 2), Gr. Chasm.]
- witchery
- Sorcery; enchantment; witchcraft.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Cosmos 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, Cosmos, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/cosmos.html, id L07566.
Form and metre
Cosmos is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.3 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 46% 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.
- 3 -A-A forest · fameA · torches · flameA
- 4 -A-A mirror · spaceA · battle · faceA
- 5 ABAB coursesA · betrayB · forcesA · dayB
- 6 -A-A up · throneA · birds · ownA
- 7 -A-A heart · dayA · jubilee · mayA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Who saw the hid beginnings | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| When Chaos and Order strove, | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| Or who can date the morning. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The purple flaming of love? | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| I saw the hid beginnings | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| When Chaos and Order strove, | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| And I can date the morning prime | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And purple flame of love. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Song breathed from all the forest, | 8 | ··˘···/˘ |
| The total air was fame; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| It seemed the world was all torches | 8 | ······/˘ |
| That suddenly caught the flame. | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| Is there never a retroscope mirror | 9 | ··/····/˘ |
| In the realms and corners of space | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| That can give us a glimpse of the battle | 10 | ········/˘ |
| And the soldiers face to face? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Sit here on the basalt courses | 8 | ····˘//˘ |
| Where twisted hills betray | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| The seat of the world-old Forces | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Who wrestled here on a day. | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| When the purple flame shoots up, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And Love ascends his throne, | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| I cannot hear your songs, O birds, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| For the witchery of my own. | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| And every human heart | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| Still keeps that golden day | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And rings the bells of jubilee | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| On its own First of May. | 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.