St. Michael's Chapel
When the vexed hubbub of our world of gainRoars round about me as I walk the street,The myriad noise of Traffic, and the beatOf Toil's incessant hammer, the fierce strainOf struggle hand to hand and brain to brain,Ofttimes a sudden dream my sense will cheat,The gaudy shops, the sky-piled roofs retreat,And all at once I stand enthralled againWithin a marble minster over-seas.I watch the solemn gold-stained gloom that creepsTo kiss an alabaster tomb, where sleepsA lady 'twixt two knights' stone effigies,And every day in dusky glory steepsTheir sculptured slumber of five centuries.
Words in this poem
- hubbub n.
- A loud noise of many confused voices; a tumult; uproar. [Cf. Whoobub, Whoop, Hoop, v. i.]
- myriad n.
- The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. [Gr. myriade.]
- ofttimes adv.
- Frequently; often. [Oft + time. Cf. -wards.]
- piled a.
- Having a pile or point; pointed. [From 2d Pile.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
St. Michael's Chapel 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, St. Michael's Chapel, in Poems, Volume I (1867–1887), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3295, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lazarus-poems/st-michael-s-chapel.html, id L19120.
Form and metre
St. Michael's Chapel is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAABBACDDC-- gainA · streetB · beatB · strainA · brainA · cheatB · retreatB · againA · seasC · creepsD · sleepsD · effigiesC · steeps · centuries
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When the vexed hubbub of our world of gain | 10 | ···/˘·/··· |
| Roars round about me as I walk the street, | 10 | ·········· |
| The myriad noise of Traffic, and the beat | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Of Toil's incessant hammer, the fierce strain | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Of struggle hand to hand and brain to brain, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Ofttimes a sudden dream my sense will cheat, | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| The gaudy shops, the sky-piled roofs retreat, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| And all at once I stand enthralled again | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| Within a marble minster over-seas. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| I watch the solemn gold-stained gloom that creeps | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To kiss an alabaster tomb, where sleeps | 10 | ···/˘·˘··· |
| A lady 'twixt two knights' stone effigies, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| And every day in dusky glory steeps | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Their sculptured slumber of five centuries. | 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.