Inspiration
Noonday upon the Alpine meadowsPours its avalanche of LightAnd blazing flowers: the very shadowsTranslucent are and bright.It seems a glory that nought surpasses--Passion of angels in form and hue--When, lo! from the jewelled heaven of the grassesLeaps a lightning of sudden blue.Dimming the sun-drunk petals,Bright even unto pain,The grasshopper flashes, settles,And then is quenched again.
Words in this poem
- noonday n.
- Midday; twelve o'clock in the day; noon.
- avalanche n.
- A large mass or body of snow and ice sliding swiftly down a mountain side, or falling down a precipice. [F. avalanche, fr. avaler to descend, to let down, from aval down, downward; ad) + val, L. vallis, valley. See Valley.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Inspiration is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #24364; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Aldous Huxley, Inspiration, in The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24364, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/huxley-defeat-of-youth/inspiration.html, id L22014.
Form and metre
Inspiration is 12 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEF. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABCDCDEFEF meadowsA · lightB · shadowsA · brightB · surpassesC · hueD · grassesC · blueD · petalsE · painF · settlesE · againF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Noonday upon the Alpine meadows | 9 | /˘···/·/· |
| Pours its avalanche of Light | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And blazing flowers: the very shadows | 10 | ·/˘/˘·/˘/· |
| Translucent are and bright. | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| It seems a glory that nought surpasses-- | 10 | ···/˘··˘/˘ |
| Passion of angels in form and hue-- | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| When, lo! from the jewelled heaven of the grasses | 11 | ····/˘/··/˘ |
| Leaps a lightning of sudden blue. | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Dimming the sun-drunk petals, | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
| Bright even unto pain, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The grasshopper flashes, settles, | 8 | ·/·˘/˘/˘ |
| And then is quenched again. | 6 | ····˘/ |
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.