To Ellen
And Ellen, when the graybeard yearsHave brought us to life's evening hour,And all the crowded Past appearsA tiny scene of sun and shower,
Then, if I read the page arightWhere Hope, the soothsayer, reads our lot,Thyself shalt own the page was bright,Well that we loved, woe had we not,
When Mirth is dumb and Flattery's fled,And mute thy music's dearest tone,When all but Love itself is deadAnd all but deathless Reason gone.
Words in this poem
- aright adv.
- Rightly; correctly; in a right way or form; without mistake or crime; as, to worship God aright. [Pref. a- + right.]
- soothsayer n.
- One who foretells events by the art of soothsaying; a prognosticator.
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Ellen 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, To Ellen, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/to-ellen.html, id L07413.
Form and metre
To Ellen is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% 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 yearsA · hourB · appearsA · showerB
- 2 ABAB arightA · lotB · brightA · notB
- 3 A-A- fledA · tone · deadA · gone
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 |
|---|---|---|
| And Ellen, when the graybeard years | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Have brought us to life's evening hour, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| And all the crowded Past appears | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| A tiny scene of sun and shower, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Then, if I read the page aright | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Where Hope, the soothsayer, reads our lot, | 9 | ····/˘·/· |
| Thyself shalt own the page was bright, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Well that we loved, woe had we not, | 8 | ········ |
| When Mirth is dumb and Flattery's fled, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And mute thy music's dearest tone, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| When all but Love itself is dead | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And all but deathless Reason gone. | 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.