XV ‘The Chief’
HIS brow spreads large and placid, and his eyeIs deep and bright, with steady looks that still.Soft lines of tranquil thought his face fulfill—His face at once benign and proud and shy.If envy scout, if ignorance deny,His faultless patience, his unyielding will,Beautiful gentleness and splendid skill,Innumerable gratitudes reply.His wise, rare smile is sweet with certainties,And seems in all his patients to compelSuch love and faith as failure cannot quell.We hold him for another Herakles,Battling with custom, prejudice, disease,As once the son of Zeus with Death and Hell.
Words in this poem
- placid a.
- Pleased; contented; unruffied; undisturbed; serene; peaceful; tranquil; quiet; gentle. [L. placidus, originally, pleasing, mild, from placere to please: cf. F. placide. See Please.]
- fulfill v. t.
- To fill up; to make full or complete. [OE. fulfillen, fulfullen, AS. fulfyllan; ful full + fyllan to fill. See Full, a., and Fill, v. t.]
- faultless a.
- Without fault; not defective or imperfect; free from blemish; free from incorrectness, vice, or offense; perfect; as, a faultless poem.
- quell v. t.
- To take the life of; to kill. [OE. quellen to kill, AS. cwellan, causative of cwelan to die; akin to OHG. quellen to torment, Icel. kvelja. See Quail to cower.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
XV ‘The Chief’ is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1568; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. E. Henley, XV ‘The Chief’, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/xv-the-chief.html, id L12336.
Form and metre
XV ‘The Chief’ is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.4 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 ABBAABBACDD-CD eyeA · stillB · fulfillB · shyA · denyA · willB · skillB · replyA · certaintiesC · compelD · quellD · herakles · diseaseC · hellD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| HIS brow spreads large and placid, and his eye | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Is deep and bright, with steady looks that still. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Soft lines of tranquil thought his face fulfill— | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| His face at once benign and proud and shy. | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| If envy scout, if ignorance deny, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| His faultless patience, his unyielding will, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Beautiful gentleness and splendid skill, | 10 | /˘˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| Innumerable gratitudes reply. | 10 | ˘/˘˘˘/˘·˘/ |
| His wise, rare smile is sweet with certainties, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| And seems in all his patients to compel | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Such love and faith as failure cannot quell. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| We hold him for another Herakles, | 9 | ····˘/˘·· |
| Battling with custom, prejudice, disease, | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| As once the son of Zeus with Death and Hell. | 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.