Chimes
Sweet chimes! that in the loneliness of nightSalute the passing hour, and in the darkAnd silent chambers of the household markThe movements of the myriad orbs of light!Through my closed eyelids, by the inner sight,I see the constellations in the arcOf their great circles moving on, and hark!I almost hear them singing in their flight.Better than sleep it is to lie awakeO'er-canopied by the vast starry domeOf the immeasurable sky; to feelThe slumbering world sink under us, and makeHardly an eddy,--a mere rush of foamOn the great sea beneath a sinking keel.
Words in this poem
- loneliness n.
- The condition of being lonely; solitude; seclusion.
- myriad n.
- The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. [Gr. myriade.]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chimes is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Project Gutenberg ebook #1365; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Chimes, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/chimes.html, id L17835.
Form and metre
Chimes is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDECDE, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 64% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other Italian sonnets, 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 ABBAABBACDECDE nightA · darkB · markB · lightA · sightA · arcB · harkB · flightA · awakeC · domeD · feelE · makeC · foamD · keelE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet chimes! that in the loneliness of night | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Salute the passing hour, and in the dark | 10 | ˘/·/˘/···· |
| And silent chambers of the household mark | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/·· |
| The movements of the myriad orbs of light! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Through my closed eyelids, by the inner sight, | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| I see the constellations in the arc | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Of their great circles moving on, and hark! | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| I almost hear them singing in their flight. | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| Better than sleep it is to lie awake | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| O'er-canopied by the vast starry dome | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Of the immeasurable sky; to feel | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘··· |
| The slumbering world sink under us, and make | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Hardly an eddy,--a mere rush of foam | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| On the great sea beneath a sinking keel. | 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.