Manners
Grace, Beauty and CapriceBuild this golden portal;Graceful women, chosen men,Dazzle every mortal.Their sweet and lofty countenanceHis enchanted food;He need not go to them, their formsBeset his solitude.He looketh seldom in their face,His eyes explore the ground,--The green grass is a looking-glassWhereon their traits are found.Little and less he says to them,So dances his heart in his breast;Their tranquil mien bereaveth himOf wit, of words, of rest.Too weak to win, too fond to shunThe tyrants of his doom,The much deceived EndymionSlips behind a tomb.
Words in this poem
- dazzle v. t.
- To overpower with light; to confuse the sight of by brilliance of light. [Freq. of daze.]
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- explore v. t.
- To seek for or after; to strive to attain by search; to look wisely and carefully for. [L. explorare to explore; ex out+plorare to cry out aloud,prob. orig., to cause to flow; perh. akin to E. flow: cf. F. explorer.]
- whereon adv.
- On which; -- used relatively; as, the earth whereon we live.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Manners 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, Manners, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/manners.html, id L07487.
Form and metre
Manners is 20 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 35% 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 -A-A-B-B-C-C-D-D-E-E caprice · portalA · men · mortalA · countenance · foodB · forms · solitudeB · face · groundC · glass · foundC · them · breastD · him · restD · shun · doomE · endymion · tombE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Grace, Beauty and Caprice | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Build this golden portal; | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Graceful women, chosen men, | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Dazzle every mortal. | 7 | /˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Their sweet and lofty countenance | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| His enchanted food; | 5 | ·˘/˘· |
| He need not go to them, their forms | 8 | ········ |
| Beset his solitude. | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| He looketh seldom in their face, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| His eyes explore the ground,-- | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| The green grass is a looking-glass | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Whereon their traits are found. | 6 | ˘/···· |
| Little and less he says to them, | 8 | /˘······ |
| So dances his heart in his breast; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Their tranquil mien bereaveth him | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Of wit, of words, of rest. | 6 | ······ |
| Too weak to win, too fond to shun | 8 | ········ |
| The tyrants of his doom, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The much deceived Endymion | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Slips behind a tomb. | 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.