Intellectual Powers
O Thought! O Memory! gems for ever heapingHigh in the illumined chambers of the mind--And thou, divine Imagination! keepingThy lamp’s lone star mid shadowy hosts enshrined;How in one moment rent and disentwined,At Fever’s fiery touch, apart they fall,Your glorious combinations! broken all,As the sand-pillars by the desert’s windScatter’d to whirling dust! Oh, soon uncrown’d!Well may your parting swift, your strange return,Subdue the soul to lowliness profound,Guiding its chasten’d vision to discernHow by meek Faith heaven’s portals must be pass’d,Ere it can hold your gifts inalienably fast.
Words in this poem
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- lowliness n.
- The state or quality of being lowly; humility; humbleness of mind. [From Lowly.]
- inalienably adv.
- In a manner that forbids alienation; as, rights inalienably vested.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Intellectual Powers 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, Intellectual Powers, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/intellectual-powers.html, id L19829.
Form and metre
Intellectual Powers is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ABABBCCB-D-DEE heapingA · mindB · keepingA · enshrinedB · disentwinedB · fallC · allC · windB · uncrown'd · returnD · profound · discernD · pass'dE · fastE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O Thought! O Memory! gems for ever heaping | 11 | ···/˘˘··//˘ |
| High in the illumined chambers of the mind-- | 11 | ···˘/˘/˘··· |
| And thou, divine Imagination! keeping | 11 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| Thy lamp’s lone star mid shadowy hosts enshrined; | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| How in one moment rent and disentwined, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| At Fever’s fiery touch, apart they fall, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Your glorious combinations! broken all, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| As the sand-pillars by the desert’s wind | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Scatter’d to whirling dust! Oh, soon uncrown’d! | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Well may your parting swift, your strange return, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Subdue the soul to lowliness profound, | 10 | ˘/···/˘˘˘/ |
| Guiding its chasten’d vision to discern | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| How by meek Faith heaven’s portals must be pass’d, | 11 | ····/˘/˘··· |
| Ere it can hold your gifts inalienably fast. | 12 | ······˘/˘˘˘· |
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.