Illusions
Flow, flow the waves hated,Accursed, adored,The waves of mutation;No anchorage is.Sleep is not, death is not;Who seem to die live.House you were born in,Friends of your spring-time,Old man and young maid,Day's toil and its guerdon,They are all vanishing,Fleeing to fables,Cannot be moored.See the stars through them,Through treacherous marbles.Know the stars yonder,The stars everlasting,Are fugitive also,And emulate, vaulted,The lambent heat lightningAnd fire-fly's flight.
When thou dost returnOn the wave's circulation,Behold the shimmer,The wild dissipation,And, out of endeavorTo change and to flow,The gas become solid,And phantoms and nothingsReturn to be things,And endless imbroglioIs law and the world,--Then first shalt thou know,That in the wild turmoil,Horsed on the Proteus,Thou ridest to power,And to endurance.
High was her heart, and yet was well inclined,Her manners made of bounty well refined;Far capitals and marble courts, her eye still seemed to see,Minstrels and kings and high-born dames, and of the best that be.
Words in this poem
- guerdon n.
- A reward; requital; recompense; -- used in both a good and a bad sense. [OF. guerdon, guerredon, LL. widerdonum (influenced by L. donum gift, cf. Donation ), fr. OHG. widarl; widar again, against (G. wider wieder) + lon reward, G. lo]
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- lambent a.
- Playing on the surface; touching lightly; gliding over. [L. lambens, -enlis, p. pr. of lambere to lick; akin to lap. See Lap to drink by licking.]
- shimmer v. i.
- To shine with a tremulous or intermittent light; to shine faintly; to gleam; to glisten; to glimmer. [OE. schimeren, AS. scimerian; akin to scimian, sciman, to glitter, D. schemeren, G. schimmern, Dan. skimre, Sw. skimra, AS. scima a light, brightness, Icel. ski]
- dissipation n.
- The act of dissipating or dispersing; a state of dispersion or separation; dispersion; waste. [L. dissipatio: cf. F. dissipation.]
- imbroglio n.
- An intricate, complicated plot, as of a drama or work of fiction. [It. See 1st Broil, and cf. Embroil.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- turmoil v. t.
- To harass with commotion; to disquiet; to worry.
- bounty n.
- Goodness, kindness; virtue; worth. [OE. bounte goodness, kindness, F. bonté, fr. L. bonitas, fr. bonus good, for older duonus; cf. Skr. duvas honor, respect.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Illusions 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, Illusions, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/illusions.html, id L07503.
Form and metre
Illusions is 41 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.1 syllables. 21 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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.
- 2 AA-A-B-CC--B---- returnA · circulationA · shimmer · dissipationA · endeavor · flowB · solid · nothingsC · thingsC · imbroglio · world · knowB · turmoil · proteus · power · endurance
- 3 AABB inclinedA · refinedA · seeB · beB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Flow, flow the waves hated, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Accursed, adored, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| The waves of mutation; | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| No anchorage is. | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Sleep is not, death is not; | 6 | ······ |
| Who seem to die live. | 5 | ····· |
| House you were born in, | 5 | ····· |
| Friends of your spring-time, | 5 | ····· |
| Old man and young maid, | 5 | ····· |
| Day's toil and its guerdon, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| They are all vanishing, | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Fleeing to fables, | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Cannot be moored. | 4 | /˘·· |
| See the stars through them, | 5 | ····· |
| Through treacherous marbles. | 6 | ·/˘˘/˘ |
| Know the stars yonder, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| The stars everlasting, | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| Are fugitive also, | 6 | ·/˘˘/˘ |
| And emulate, vaulted, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| The lambent heat lightning | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| And fire-fly's flight. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| When thou dost return | 5 | ···˘/ |
| On the wave's circulation, | 7 | ···/˘·˘ |
| Behold the shimmer, | 5 | ˘/·/˘ |
| The wild dissipation, | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| And, out of endeavor | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| To change and to flow, | 5 | ····· |
| The gas become solid, | 6 | ··˘//˘ |
| And phantoms and nothings | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Return to be things, | 5 | ˘/··· |
| And endless imbroglio | 6 | ·/˘˘/˘ |
| Is law and the world,-- | 5 | ····· |
| Then first shalt thou know, | 5 | ····· |
| That in the wild turmoil, | 6 | ····/· |
| Horsed on the Proteus, | 7 | ·˘··/˘˘ |
| Thou ridest to power, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| And to endurance. | 5 | ··/˘˘ |
| High was her heart, and yet was well inclined, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Her manners made of bounty well refined; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Far capitals and marble courts, her eye still seemed to see, | 13 | ·/˘·/˘······· |
| Minstrels and kings and high-born dames, and of the best that be. | 14 | /˘············ |
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.