Cupido
The solid, solid universeIs pervious to Love;With bandaged eyes he never errs,Around, below, above.His blinding lightHe flingeth whiteOn God's and Satan's brood,And reconcilesBy mystic wilesThe evil and the good.
About this text
Cupido 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, Cupido, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/cupido.html, id L07474.
Form and metre
Cupido is 10 lines in a single stanza. 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.6 syllables. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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-ABB-CC- universe · loveA · errs · aboveA · lightB · whiteB · brood · reconcilesC · wilesC · good
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The solid, solid universe | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Is pervious to Love; | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| With bandaged eyes he never errs, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Around, below, above. | 6 | ······ |
| His blinding light | 4 | ·/˘· |
| He flingeth white | 4 | ·/˘· |
| On God's and Satan's brood, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And reconciles | 4 | ·/˘· |
| By mystic wiles | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The evil and the good. | 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.