Indifference
AS once in a town thro’ the twilight pleasantA belfry chorus majestic rose,While our talk ran on, and the good lamp glistened,And nothing you recked, rapt soul! but listened,And followed on truant wing incessantAfter the chime to its silvern close;
So later, when over your gentle pages,The harsh world wronged you with scorn and sting,By the far-away joy in your blue eye growing,I knew that beyond these ill winds blowing,You heard, my Poet! the praise of the ages;Only and ever you heard them sing.
Words in this poem
- belfry n.
- A movable tower erected by besiegers for purposes of attack and defense. [OE. berfray movable tower used in sieges, OF. berfreit, berfroit, F. beffroi, fr. MHG. bervrit, bercvrit, G. bergfriede, fr. MHG. bergen to protect (G. bergen t]
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- chime n.
- The harmonious sound of bells, or of musical instruments. [OE. chimbe, prop., cymbal, OF. cymbe, cymble, in a dialectic form, chymble, F. cymbale, L. cymbalum, fr. Gr. Cymbal.]
- silvern a.
- Made of silver. Wyclif (Acts xix. 24). [AS. seolfern, sylfren.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Indifference is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs at the Start, Project Gutenberg ebook #53087; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Louise Imogen Guiney, Indifference, in Songs at the Start (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #53087, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/guiney-songs/indifference.html, id L11231.
Form and metre
Indifference is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 84% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -ABB-A pleasant · roseA · glistenedB · listenedB · incessant · closeA
- 2 ABCCAB pagesA · stingB · growingC · blowingC · agesA · singB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| AS once in a town thro’ the twilight pleasant | 11 | ·······/·/˘ |
| A belfry chorus majestic rose, | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘/˘· |
| While our talk ran on, and the good lamp glistened, | 11 | ·/·······/˘ |
| And nothing you recked, rapt soul! but listened, | 10 | ·/˘·····/˘ |
| And followed on truant wing incessant | 10 | ·/˘·/˘·˘/˘ |
| After the chime to its silvern close; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| So later, when over your gentle pages, | 10 | ·/˘···/˘/˘ |
| The harsh world wronged you with scorn and sting, | 9 | ········· |
| By the far-away joy in your blue eye growing, | 11 | ···˘/·····/ |
| I knew that beyond these ill winds blowing, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| You heard, my Poet! the praise of the ages; | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Only and ever you heard them sing. | 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.