Attraction of the East
What secret current of man’s nature turnsUnto the golden East with ceaseless flow?Still, where the sunbeam at its fountain burns,The pilgrim-spirit would adore and glow;Rapt in high thoughts, though weary, faint, and slow,Still doth the traveller through the deserts wind,Led by those old Chaldean stars, which knowWhere pass’d the shepherd-fathers of mankind.Is it some quenchless instinct, which from farStill points to where our alienated homeLay in bright peace? O thou true Eastern star!Saviour! atoning Lord! where’er we roam,Draw still our hearts to thee, else, else how vainTheir hope, the fair lost birthright to regain!
Words in this poem
- ceaseless a.
- Without pause or end; incessant.
- sunbeam n.
- A beam or ray of the sun. [AS. sunnebeam.]
- adore v. t.
- To worship with profound reverence; to pay divine honors to; to honor as deity or as divine. [OE. aouren, anouren, adoren, OF. aorer, adorer, F. adorer, fr. L. adorare; ad + orare to speak, pray, os, oris, mouth. In OE. confused with honor, the French pr]
- 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.]
- chaldean a.
- Of or pertaining to Chaldea. [L. Chaldaeus.]
- quenchless a.
- Incapable of being quenched; inextinguishable; as, quenchless fire or fury.
- saviour n.
- One who saves, preserves, or delivers from destruction or danger. [OE. saveour, OF. salveor, F. sauveur, fr. L. salvator to save. See Save, v.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Attraction of the East is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, Attraction of the East, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/attraction-of-the-east.html, id L19809.
Form and metre
Attraction of the East is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABBCBCDEDEFF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 ABABBCBCDEDEFF turnsA · flowB · burnsA · glowB · slowB · windC · knowB · mankindC · farD · homeE · starD · roamE · vainF · regainF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What secret current of man’s nature turns | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Unto the golden East with ceaseless flow? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Still, where the sunbeam at its fountain burns, | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| The pilgrim-spirit would adore and glow; | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Rapt in high thoughts, though weary, faint, and slow, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Still doth the traveller through the deserts wind, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Led by those old Chaldean stars, which know | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Where pass’d the shepherd-fathers of mankind. | 10 | ···/˘/˘·// |
| Is it some quenchless instinct, which from far | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Still points to where our alienated home | 10 | ····//˘·˘· |
| Lay in bright peace? O thou true Eastern star! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Saviour! atoning Lord! where’er we roam, | 11 | /˘˘/˘·˘˘/·· |
| Draw still our hearts to thee, else, else how vain | 10 | ··/······· |
| Their hope, the fair lost birthright to regain! | 10 | ·····/··˘/ |
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.