Mountains
A stronger gust catches the cloud and twistsA spindle of rifted darkness through its heart,A gash in the damp grey, which, thrust apart,Reveals black depths a moment. Then the mistsShut down again; a white uneasy seaHeaves round the climbers and beneath their feet.He strains on upwards through the wind and sleet,Poised, or swift moving, or laboriouslyLifting his weight. And if he should let go,What would he find down there, down there belowThe curtain of the mist? What would he findBeyond the dim and stifling now and here,Beneath the unsettled turmoil of his mind?Oh, there were nameless depths: he shrank with fear.
Words in this poem
- heaves n.
- A disease of horses, characterized by difficult breathing, with heaving of the flank, wheezing, flatulency, and a peculiar cough; broken wind.
- sleet n.
- The part of a mortar extending from the chamber to the trunnions.
- turmoil v. t.
- To harass with commotion; to disquiet; to worry.
- nameless a.
- Without a name; not having been given a name; as, a nameless star.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Mountains 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, Mountains, in The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24364, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/huxley-defeat-of-youth/mountains.html, id L21999.
Form and metre
Mountains is 14 lines in a single stanza. 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 ABBA-CC-DDEFEF twistsA · heartB · apartB · mistsA · sea · feetC · sleetC · laboriously · goD · belowD · findE · hereF · mindE · fearF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A stronger gust catches the cloud and twists | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| A spindle of rifted darkness through its heart, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘/˘··· |
| A gash in the damp grey, which, thrust apart, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Reveals black depths a moment. Then the mists | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| Shut down again; a white uneasy sea | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘· |
| Heaves round the climbers and beneath their feet. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| He strains on upwards through the wind and sleet, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Poised, or swift moving, or laboriously | 11 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘˘ |
| Lifting his weight. And if he should let go, | 10 | /˘········ |
| What would he find down there, down there below | 10 | ·········· |
| The curtain of the mist? What would he find | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Beyond the dim and stifling now and here, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Beneath the unsettled turmoil of his mind? | 11 | ···˘/˘/···· |
| Oh, there were nameless depths: he shrank with fear. | 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.