The Shrine ("She Watches Over the Sea") II
You are useless,O grave, O beautiful,the landsmen tell it--I have heard--you are useless.
And the wind sounds with thisand the seawhere rollers shot with bluecut under deeper blue.
O but stay tender, enchantedwhere wave-lengths cut youapart from all the rest--for we have found you,we watch the splendour of you,we thread throat on throat of freesiafor your shelf.
You are not forgot,O plunder of lilies,honey is not more sweetthan the salt stretch of your beach.
Words in this poem
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Shrine ("She Watches Over the Sea") II 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") II, 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-ii.html, id L08251.
Form and metre
The Shrine ("She Watches Over the Sea") II is 19 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.7 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 37% 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--A uselessA · beautiful · heard · uselessA
- 2 --AA this · sea · blueA · blueA
- 3 -A-AA-- enchanted · youA · rest · youA · youA · freesia · shelf
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 |
|---|---|---|
| You are useless, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| O grave, O beautiful, | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| the landsmen tell it--I have heard-- | 8 | ········ |
| you are useless. | 4 | ··/˘ |
| And the wind sounds with this | 6 | ······ |
| and the sea | 3 | ··· |
| where rollers shot with blue | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| cut under deeper blue. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| O but stay tender, enchanted | 8 | ···/˘˘/˘ |
| where wave-lengths cut you | 5 | ····· |
| apart from all the rest-- | 6 | ˘/···· |
| for we have found you, | 5 | ····· |
| we watch the splendour of you, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| we thread throat on throat of freesia | 8 | ········ |
| for your shelf. | 3 | ··· |
| You are not forgot, | 5 | ···˘/ |
| O plunder of lilies, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| honey is not more sweet | 6 | /˘···· |
| than the salt stretch of your beach. | 7 | ······· |
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.