By the Statue of King Charles at Charing Cross
Sombre and rich, the skies;Great glooms, and starry plains.Gently the night wind sighs;Else a vast silence reigns.
The splendid silence clingsAround me: and aroundThe saddest of all kingsCrowned, and again discrowned.
Comely and calm, he ridesHard by his own Whitehall:Only the night wind glides:No crowds, nor rebels, brawl.
Gone, too, his Court: and yet,The stars his courtiers are:Stars in their stations set;And every wandering star.
Alone he rides, alone,The fair and fatal king:Dark night is all his own,That strange and solemn thing.
Which are more full of fate:The stars; or those sad eyes?Which are more still and great:Those brows; or the dark skies?
Although his whole heart yearnIn passionate tragedy:Never was face so sternWith sweet austerity.
Vanquished in life, his deathBy beauty made amends:The passing of his breathWon his defeated ends.
Brief life, and hapless? Nay:Through death, life grew sublime.Speak after sentence? Yea:And to the end of time.
Armoured he rides, his headBare to the stars of doom:He triumphs now, the dead,Beholding London's gloom.
Our wearier spirit faints,Vexed in the world's employ:His soul was of the saints;And art to him was joy.
King, tried in fires of woe!Men hunger for thy grace:And through the night I go,Loving thy mournful face.
Yet, when the city sleeps;When all the cries are still:The stars and heavenly deepsWork out a perfect will.
Words in this poem
- sombre n.
- Gloom; obscurity; duskiness; somberness.
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- yearn v. t.
- To pain; to grieve; to vex. [Also earn, ern; probably a corruption of OE. ermen to grieve, AS. ierman, yrman, or geierman, geyrman, fr. earm wretched, poor; akin to D. & G. arm, Icel. armr,]
- austerity n.
- Sourness and harshness to the taste. Horsley. [F. austérité, L. austerias, fr. austerus. See Austere.]
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
- armoured a.
- Clad with armor.
- beholding a.
- Obliged; beholden.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
By the Statue of King Charles at Charing Cross is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #66520; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lionel Johnson, By the Statue of King Charles at Charing Cross, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/by-the-statue-of-king-charles-at-charing-cross.html, id L12470.
Form and metre
By the Statue of King Charles at Charing Cross is 52 lines in 13 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 10 of its 13 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABAB skiesA · plainsB · sighsA · reignsB
- 2 ABAB clingsA · aroundB · kingsA · discrownedB
- 3 ABAB ridesA · whitehallB · glidesA · brawlB
- 4 ABAB yetA · areB · setA · starB
- 5 ABAB aloneA · kingB · ownA · thingB
- 6 ABAB fateA · eyesB · greatA · skiesB
- 7 A-A- yearnA · tragedy · sternA · austerity
- 8 ABAB deathA · amendsB · breathA · endsB
- 9 ABAB nayA · sublimeB · yeaA · timeB
- 10 ABAB headA · doomB · deadA · gloomB
- 11 -A-A faints · employA · saints · joyA
- 12 ABAB woeA · graceB · goA · faceB
- 13 -A-A sleeps · stillA · deeps · willA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sombre and rich, the skies; | 6 | /˘···· |
| Great glooms, and starry plains. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Gently the night wind sighs; | 6 | /˘···· |
| Else a vast silence reigns. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The splendid silence clings | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Around me: and around | 6 | ······ |
| The saddest of all kings | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Crowned, and again discrowned. | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Comely and calm, he rides | 6 | /˘···· |
| Hard by his own Whitehall: | 6 | ····/· |
| Only the night wind glides: | 6 | /˘···· |
| No crowds, nor rebels, brawl. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Gone, too, his Court: and yet, | 6 | ······ |
| The stars his courtiers are: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Stars in their stations set; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And every wandering star. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Alone he rides, alone, | 6 | ˘/··˘/ |
| The fair and fatal king: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Dark night is all his own, | 6 | ······ |
| That strange and solemn thing. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Which are more full of fate: | 6 | ······ |
| The stars; or those sad eyes? | 6 | ······ |
| Which are more still and great: | 6 | ······ |
| Those brows; or the dark skies? | 6 | ······ |
| Although his whole heart yearn | 6 | ······ |
| In passionate tragedy: | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘˘ |
| Never was face so stern | 6 | /˘···· |
| With sweet austerity. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Vanquished in life, his death | 6 | /˘···· |
| By beauty made amends: | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| The passing of his breath | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Won his defeated ends. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Brief life, and hapless? Nay: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Through death, life grew sublime. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Speak after sentence? Yea: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And to the end of time. | 6 | ······ |
| Armoured he rides, his head | 6 | /˘···· |
| Bare to the stars of doom: | 6 | ······ |
| He triumphs now, the dead, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Beholding London's gloom. | 6 | ˘/˘/˘· |
| Our wearier spirit faints, | 6 | /··/˘· |
| Vexed in the world's employ: | 6 | ····˘/ |
| His soul was of the saints; | 6 | ······ |
| And art to him was joy. | 6 | ······ |
| King, tried in fires of woe! | 6 | ···/·· |
| Men hunger for thy grace: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And through the night I go, | 6 | ······ |
| Loving thy mournful face. | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Yet, when the city sleeps; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| When all the cries are still: | 6 | ······ |
| The stars and heavenly deeps | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Work out a perfect will. | 6 | ···˘/· |
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