Invocation
“I call’d on dreams and visions, to discloseThat which is veil’d from waking thought; conjuredEternity, as men constrain a ghostTo appear and answer.” Wordsworth.
Answer me, burning stars of night!Where is the spirit gone,That past the reach of human sightAs a swift breeze hath flown?And the stars answer’d me--“We rollIn light and power on high;But, of the never-dying soul,Ask that which cannot die.”O many-toned and chainless wind!Thou art a wanderer free;Tell me if thou its place canst find,Far over mount and sea?And the wind murmur’d in reply--“The blue deep I have cross’d,And met its barks and billows high,But not what thou hast lost.”
Ye clouds that gorgeously reposeAround the setting sun,Answer! have ye a home for thoseWhose earthly race is run?The bright clouds answer’d--“We depart,We vanish from the sky;Ask what is deathless in thy heart,For that which cannot die.”
Speak then, thou voice of God within,Thou of the deep low tone!Answer me, through life’s restless din--Where is the spirit flown?And the voice answer’d--“Be thou still!Enough to know is given:Clouds, winds, and stars their part fulfil--Thine is, to trust in Heaven.”
Words in this poem
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- chainless a.
- Having no chain; not restrained or fettered.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- 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,]
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Invocation 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, Invocation, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/invocation-2.html, id L19442.
Form and metre
Invocation is 36 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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.
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.
- 2 A-A-BCBCDEDECFCF nightA · gone · sightA · flown · rollB · highC · soulB · dieC · windD · freeE · findD · seaE · replyC · cross'dF · highC · lostF
- 3 ABABCDCD reposeA · sunB · thoseA · runB · departC · skyD · heartC · dieD
- 4 ABAB-B-B withinA · toneB · dinA · flownB · still · givenB · fulfil · heavenB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “I call’d on dreams and visions, to disclose | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| That which is veil’d from waking thought; conjured | 10 | ·····/˘·/˘ |
| Eternity, as men constrain a ghost | 10 | ˘/˘˘··˘/·· |
| To appear and answer.” Wordsworth. | 8 | ·˘/·/˘/˘ |
| Answer me, burning stars of night! | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Where is the spirit gone, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| That past the reach of human sight | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| As a swift breeze hath flown? | 6 | ······ |
| And the stars answer’d me--“We roll | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In light and power on high; | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| But, of the never-dying soul, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Ask that which cannot die.” | 6 | ···/˘· |
| O many-toned and chainless wind! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Thou art a wanderer free; | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Tell me if thou its place canst find, | 8 | ········ |
| Far over mount and sea? | 6 | ······ |
| And the wind murmur’d in reply-- | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| “The blue deep I have cross’d, | 6 | ······ |
| And met its barks and billows high, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But not what thou hast lost.” | 6 | ······ |
| Ye clouds that gorgeously repose | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Around the setting sun, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Answer! have ye a home for those | 8 | /˘······ |
| Whose earthly race is run? | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The bright clouds answer’d--“We depart, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| We vanish from the sky; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Ask what is deathless in thy heart, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For that which cannot die.” | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Speak then, thou voice of God within, | 8 | ········ |
| Thou of the deep low tone! | 6 | ······ |
| Answer me, through life’s restless din-- | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Where is the spirit flown? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And the voice answer’d--“Be thou still! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Enough to know is given: | 7 | ˘/···/˘ |
| Clouds, winds, and stars their part fulfil-- | 8 | ········ |
| Thine is, to trust in Heaven.” | 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.