The Shrine ("She Watches Over the Sea") I
Are your rocks shelter for ships--have you sent galleys from your beach,are you graded--a safe crescent--where the tide lifts them back to port--are you full and sweet,tempting the quietto depart in their trading ships?
Nay, you are great, fierce, evil--you are the land-blight--you have tempted menbut they perished on your cliffs.
It was evil--evilwhen they found you,when the quiet men looked at you--they sought a headlandshaded with ledge of clifffrom the wind-blast.
But you--you are unsheltered,cut with the weight of wind--you shudder when it strikes,then lift, swelled with the blast--you sink as the tide sinks,you shrill under hail, and soundthunder when thunder sounds.You are useless--when the tides swirlyour boulders cut and wreckthe staggering ships.
Words in this poem
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
- swirl v. t.
- To whirl, or cause to whirl, as in an eddy. [Akin to Norw. svirla to whirl, freq. of sverra to whirl, Dan. svirre, G. schwirren to whiz, to buzz. *177. See Swarm, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Shrine ("She Watches Over the Sea") I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sea Garden, Project Gutenberg ebook #28665; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: H.D., The Shrine ("She Watches Over the Sea") I, in Sea Garden (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #28665, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hd-sea-garden/the-shrine-she-watches-over-the-sea-i.html, id L08250.
Form and metre
The Shrine ("She Watches Over the Sea") I is 28 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.0 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% 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 A---BBA shipsA · beach · crescent · port · sweetB · quietB · shipsA
- 3 -AA--- evil · youA · youA · headland · cliff · blast
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Are your rocks shelter for ships-- | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| have you sent galleys from your beach, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| are you graded--a safe crescent-- | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| where the tide lifts them back to port-- | 8 | ········ |
| are you full and sweet, | 5 | ····· |
| tempting the quiet | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| to depart in their trading ships? | 8 | ·˘/··/˘· |
| Nay, you are great, fierce, evil-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| you are the land-blight-- | 5 | ····· |
| you have tempted men | 5 | ··/˘· |
| but they perished on your cliffs. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| It was evil--evil | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| when they found you, | 4 | ···· |
| when the quiet men looked at you-- | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| they sought a headland | 5 | ···/˘ |
| shaded with ledge of cliff | 6 | /˘···· |
| from the wind-blast. | 4 | ···· |
| But you--you are unsheltered, | 7 | ······· |
| cut with the weight of wind-- | 6 | ······ |
| you shudder when it strikes, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| then lift, swelled with the blast-- | 6 | ······ |
| you sink as the tide sinks, | 6 | ······ |
| you shrill under hail, and sound | 7 | ······· |
| thunder when thunder sounds. | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| You are useless-- | 4 | ··/˘ |
| when the tides swirl | 4 | ···· |
| your boulders cut and wreck | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| the staggering ships. | 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.