Excelsior
Over his head were the maple buds,And over the tree was the moon,And over the moon were the starry studsThat drop from the angels' shoon.
With beams December planets dartHis cold eye truth and conduct scanned,July was in his sunny heart,October in his liberal hand.
Words in this poem
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Excelsior 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, Excelsior, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/excelsior.html, id L07513.
Form and metre
Excelsior is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 25% 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 budsA · moonB · studsA · shoonB
- 2 ABAB dartA · scannedB · heartA · handB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Over his head were the maple buds, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And over the tree was the moon, | 8 | ········ |
| And over the moon were the starry studs | 9 | ······/˘· |
| That drop from the angels' shoon. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| With beams December planets dart | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| His cold eye truth and conduct scanned, | 8 | ·····˘/· |
| July was in his sunny heart, | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| October in his liberal hand. | 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.