Invocation Continued
And come, ye faithful! round Messiah seen,With a soft harmony of tears and lightStreaming through all your spiritual mien--As in calm clouds of pearly stillness bright,Showers weave with sunshine, and transpierce their slightEthereal cradle. From your heart subduedAll haughty dreams of power had wing’d their flight,And left high place for martyr fortitude,True faith, long-suffering love. Come to me, come!And as the seas, beneath your Master’s tread,Fell into crystal smoothness, round him spreadLike the clear pavement of his heavenly home;So, in your presence, let the soul’s great deepSink to the gentleness of infant sleep.
Words in this poem
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- transpierce v. t.
- To pierce through; to penetrate; to permeate; to pass through. [Pref. trans- + pierce: cf. F. transpercer.]
- haughty a.
- High; lofty; bold. [OE. hautein, F. hautain, fr. haut high, OF. also halt, fr. L. altus. See Altitude.]
- fortitude n.
- Power to resist attack; strength; firmness. [L. fortitudo, fr. fortis strong. See Fort.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Invocation Continued 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 Continued, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/invocation-continued.html, id L19741.
Form and metre
Invocation Continued is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABBCBCDEEDFF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 ABABBCBCDEEDFF seenA · lightB · mienA · brightB · slightB · subduedC · flightB · fortitudeC · comeD · treadE · spreadE · homeD · deepF · sleepF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| And come, ye faithful! round Messiah seen, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| With a soft harmony of tears and light | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Streaming through all your spiritual mien-- | 10 | /˘···/˘˘˘· |
| As in calm clouds of pearly stillness bright, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Showers weave with sunshine, and transpierce their slight | 10 | /··/··˘/·· |
| Ethereal cradle. From your heart subdued | 10 | ˘/˘/˘···˘/ |
| All haughty dreams of power had wing’d their flight, | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| And left high place for martyr fortitude, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| True faith, long-suffering love. Come to me, come! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And as the seas, beneath your Master’s tread, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Fell into crystal smoothness, round him spread | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Like the clear pavement of his heavenly home; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| So, in your presence, let the soul’s great deep | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Sink to the gentleness of infant sleep. | 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.