The World’s Amazing Beauty
The world’s amazing beauty would make us cryAloud; but something in it strikes us dumb.Beech-forests drenched in sunny floodsWhere shaking rays and shadows hum,The unrepeated aspects of the sky,Clouds in their lightest and their wildest moods,Bare shapes of hills, June grass in flower,The sea in every hour,Slopes that one January morning flowUnbrokenly with snow,Peaks piercing heaven with motions sharp and harsh,Slow-moving flats, grey reed and silver marsh,A flock of swans in flightOr solitary heron flapping home,Orchards of pear and cherry turning white,Low apple-trees with rosy-budded boughs,Streams where young willows drink and cows,Earth’s rich ploughed loamThinking darkly forward to her sheaves,Water in Autumn spotted with yellow leaves,Light running overland,Gulls standing still above their imagesOn strips of shining sandWhile evening in a haze of greenHalf-hidesThe calm receding tides--What in the beauty we have seen in theseKeeps us still silent? something we have not seen?
Words in this poem
- amazing a.
- Causing amazement; very wonderful; as, amazing grace.
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- january n.
- The first month of the year, containing thirty-one days. [L. Januarius, fr. Janus an old Latin deity, the god of the sun and the year, to whom the month of January was sacred; cf. janua a door, Skr. ya to go.]
- overland a.
- Being, or accomplished, over the land, instead of by sea; as, an overland journey.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The World’s Amazing Beauty is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #56244; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eleanor Farjeon, The World’s Amazing Beauty, in Sonnets and Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56244, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/farjeon-sonnets-poems/the-world-s-amazing-beauty.html, id L21981.
Form and metre
The World’s Amazing Beauty is 28 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AB-BA-CCDDEEFGFHHGIIJ-JKLL-K cryA · dumbB · floods · humB · skyA · moods · flowerC · hourC · flowD · snowD · harshE · marshE · flightF · homeG · whiteF · boughsH · cowsH · loamG · sheavesI · leavesI · overlandJ · images · sandJ · greenK · hidesL · tidesL · these · seenK
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The world’s amazing beauty would make us cry | 11 | ··˘/˘/˘···· |
| Aloud; but something in it strikes us dumb. | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| Beech-forests drenched in sunny floods | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Where shaking rays and shadows hum, | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| The unrepeated aspects of the sky, | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Clouds in their lightest and their wildest moods, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Bare shapes of hills, June grass in flower, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| The sea in every hour, | 8 | ···/˘˘/˘ |
| Slopes that one January morning flow | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Unbrokenly with snow, | 6 | ······ |
| Peaks piercing heaven with motions sharp and harsh, | 10 | ·/˘/·/˘··· |
| Slow-moving flats, grey reed and silver marsh, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| A flock of swans in flight | 6 | ······ |
| Or solitary heron flapping home, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| Orchards of pear and cherry turning white, | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| Low apple-trees with rosy-budded boughs, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Streams where young willows drink and cows, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Earth’s rich ploughed loam | 4 | ···· |
| Thinking darkly forward to her sheaves, | 9 | /˘/˘/˘··· |
| Water in Autumn spotted with yellow leaves, | 11 | /˘·/˘/˘·/˘· |
| Light running overland, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Gulls standing still above their images | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| On strips of shining sand | 6 | ···/˘· |
| While evening in a haze of green | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Half-hides | 2 | ·· |
| The calm receding tides-- | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| What in the beauty we have seen in these | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Keeps us still silent? something we have not seen? | 11 | ···/˘/˘···· |
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.