Lines
Love scatters oilOn Life's dark sea,Sweetens its toil--Our helmsman he.
Around him hoverOdorous clouds;Under this coverHis arrows he shrouds.
The cloud was around me,I knew not whySuch sweetness crowned me.While Time shot by.
No pain was within,But calm delight,Like a world without sin,Or a day without night.
The shafts of the godWere tipped with down,For they drew no blood,And they knit no frown.
I knew of them notUntil Cupid laughed loud,And saying "You're caught!"Flew off in the cloud.
O then I awoke,And I lived but to sigh,Till a clear voice spoke,--And my tears are dry.
Words in this poem
- hover n.
- A cover; a shelter; a protection. Carew. C. Kingsley. [Etymol. doubtful.]
- cupid
- The god of love, son of Venus; usually represented as a naked, winged boy with bow and arrow. [L.Cupido, fr. cupido desire, desire of love, fr. cupidus. See Cupidity.]
- 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
Lines 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, Lines, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/lines.html, id L07415.
Form and metre
Lines is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 6 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% 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.
- 1 ABAB oilA · seaB · toilA · heB
- 2 ABAB hoverA · cloudsB · coverA · shroudsB
- 3 ABAB meA · whyB · meA · byB
- 4 ABAB withinA · delightB · sinA · nightB
- 5 -A-A god · downA · blood · frownA
- 6 ABAB notA · loudB · caughtA · cloudB
- 7 ABAB awokeA · sighB · spokeA · dryB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love scatters oil | 4 | ·/˘· |
| On Life's dark sea, | 4 | ···· |
| Sweetens its toil-- | 4 | /˘·· |
| Our helmsman he. | 5 | /˘/·· |
| Around him hover | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Odorous clouds; | 4 | /˘˘· |
| Under this cover | 5 | ···/˘ |
| His arrows he shrouds. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| The cloud was around me, | 6 | ······ |
| I knew not why | 4 | ···· |
| Such sweetness crowned me. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| While Time shot by. | 4 | ···· |
| No pain was within, | 5 | ····· |
| But calm delight, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Like a world without sin, | 6 | ······ |
| Or a day without night. | 6 | ······ |
| The shafts of the god | 5 | ····· |
| Were tipped with down, | 4 | ···· |
| For they drew no blood, | 5 | ····· |
| And they knit no frown. | 5 | ····· |
| I knew of them not | 5 | ····· |
| Until Cupid laughed loud, | 7 | ··/˘·˘· |
| And saying "You're caught!" | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Flew off in the cloud. | 5 | ····· |
| O then I awoke, | 5 | ···˘/ |
| And I lived but to sigh, | 7 | ···˘··· |
| Till a clear voice spoke,-- | 5 | ····· |
| And my tears are dry. | 5 | ····· |
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.