The Shrine ("She Watches Over the Sea") IV
But hail--as the tide slackens,as the wind beats out,we hail this shore--we sing to you,spirit between the headlandsand the further rocks.
Though oak-beams split,though boats and sea-men flounder,and the strait grind sand with sandand cut boulders to sand and drift--
your eyes have pardoned our faults,your hands have touched us--you have leaned forward a littleand the waves can never thrust us backfrom the splendour of your ragged coast.
Words in this poem
- 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") IV 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") IV, 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-iv.html, id L08253.
Form and metre
The Shrine ("She Watches Over the Sea") IV is 16 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| But hail-- | 2 | ·· |
| as the tide slackens, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| as the wind beats out, | 5 | ····· |
| we hail this shore-- | 4 | ···· |
| we sing to you, | 4 | ···· |
| spirit between the headlands | 7 | /˘····· |
| and the further rocks. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Though oak-beams split, | 4 | ···· |
| though boats and sea-men flounder, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| and the strait grind sand with sand | 7 | ······· |
| and cut boulders to sand and drift-- | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| your eyes have pardoned our faults, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| your hands have touched us-- | 5 | ····· |
| you have leaned forward a little | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| and the waves can never thrust us back | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| from the splendour of your ragged coast. | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
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