Places of Worship
Spirit! whose life-sustaining presence fillsAir, ocean, central depths by man untried,Thou for thy worshippers hast sanctifiedAll place, all time! The silence of the hillsBreathes veneration,--founts and choral rillsOf thee are murmuring,--to its inmost gladeThe living forest with thy whisper thrills,And there is holiness in every shade.Yet must the thoughtful soul of man investWith dearer consecration those pure fanes,Which, sever’d from all sound of earth’s unrest,Hear naught but suppliant or adoring strainsRise heavenward. Ne’er may rock or cave possessTheir claim on human hearts to solemn tenderness.
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- sanctified a.
- Made holy; also, made to have the air of sanctity; sanctimonious.
- choral a.
- Of or pertaining to a choir or chorus; singing, sung, or adapted to be sung, in chorus or harmony. Choral service, a service of song. [LL. choralis, fr. L. chorus. See Chorus.]
- inmost a.
- Deepest within; farthest from the surface or external part; innermost. [OE. innemest, AS. innemest, a double superlative form fr. inne within, fr. in in. The modern form is due to confusion with most. See In, and cf. Aftermost, Fore]
- glade n.
- An open passage through a wood; a grassy open or cleared space in a forest. [Prob. of Scand. origin, and akin to glad, a.; cf. also W. golead, goleuad, a lighting, illumination, fr. goleu light, clear, bright, goleu fwlch glade, lit., a ]
- unrest n.
- Want of rest or repose; unquietness; sleeplessness; uneasiness; disquietude.
- suppliant a.
- Asking earnestly and submissively; entreating; beseeching; supplicating. [F., p.pr. of supplier to entreat, L. supplicare. See Supplicate, and cf. Supplicant.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Places of Worship 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, Places of Worship, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/places-of-worship.html, id L19767.
Form and metre
Places of Worship is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAACACDEDEFF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 ABBAACACDEDEFF fillsA · untriedB · sanctifiedB · hillsA · rillsA · gladeC · thrillsA · shadeC · investD · fanesE · unrestD · strainsE · possessF · tendernessF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Spirit! whose life-sustaining presence fills | 10 | /˘··˘/˘/˘· |
| Air, ocean, central depths by man untried, | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Thou for thy worshippers hast sanctified | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘˘ |
| All place, all time! The silence of the hills | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Breathes veneration,--founts and choral rills | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Of thee are murmuring,--to its inmost glade | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The living forest with thy whisper thrills, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| And there is holiness in every shade. | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Yet must the thoughtful soul of man invest | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| With dearer consecration those pure fanes, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Which, sever’d from all sound of earth’s unrest, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Hear naught but suppliant or adoring strains | 11 | ···/˘˘·˘/˘· |
| Rise heavenward. Ne’er may rock or cave possess | 11 | ·/˘˘·····˘/ |
| Their claim on human hearts to solemn tenderness. | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
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.