City Visions I
As the blind Milton's memory of light,The deaf Beethoven's phantasy of tone,Wrought joys for them surpassing all things knownIn our restricted sphere of sound and sight,--So while the glaring streets of brick and stoneVex with heat, noise, and dust from morn till night,I will give rein to Fancy, taking flightFrom dismal now and here, and dwell aloneWith new-enfranchised senses. All day long,Think ye 't is I, who sit 'twixt darkened walls,While ye chase beauty over land and sea?Uplift on wings of some rare poet's song,Where the wide billow laughs and leaps and falls,I soar cloud-high, free as the the winds are free.
Words in this poem
- glaring a.
- Clear; notorious; open and bold; barefaced; as, a glaring crime.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- dismal a.
- Fatal; ill-omened; unlucky. [Formerly a noun; e. g., "I trow it was in the dismalle." Chaucer. Of uncertain origin; but perh. (as suggested by Skeat) from OF. disme, F. dîme, tithe, the phr]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- uplift v. t.
- To lift or raise aloft; to raise; to elevate; as, to uplift the arm; to uplift a rock.
- billow n.
- A great wave or surge of the sea or other water, caused usually by violent wind. [Cf. Icel. bylgja billow, Dan. bölge, Sw. bölja; akin to MHG. bulge billow, bag, and to E. bulge. See Bulge.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
City Visions I is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #3295; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emma Lazarus, City Visions I, in Admetus, and Other Poems (1867–1887), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3295, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lazarus-poems/city-visions-i.html, id L01932.
Form and metre
City Visions I is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBABAABCDECDE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABBABAABCDECDE lightA · toneB · knownB · sightA · stoneB · nightA · flightA · aloneB · longC · wallsD · seaE · songC · fallsD · freeE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As the blind Milton's memory of light, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| The deaf Beethoven's phantasy of tone, | 10 | ··/˘˘/˘˘·· |
| Wrought joys for them surpassing all things known | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| In our restricted sphere of sound and sight,-- | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| So while the glaring streets of brick and stone | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Vex with heat, noise, and dust from morn till night, | 10 | ·········· |
| I will give rein to Fancy, taking flight | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| From dismal now and here, and dwell alone | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| With new-enfranchised senses. All day long, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Think ye 't is I, who sit 'twixt darkened walls, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| While ye chase beauty over land and sea? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Uplift on wings of some rare poet's song, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Where the wide billow laughs and leaps and falls, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I soar cloud-high, free as the the winds are free. | 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.