Chrysaor
Just above yon sandy bar,As the day grows fainter and dimmer,Lonely and lovely, a single starLights the air with a dusky glimmer
Into the ocean faint and farFalls the trail of its golden splendor,And the gleam of that single starIs ever refulgent, soft, and tender.
Chrysaor, rising out of the sea,Showed thus glorious and thus emulous,Leaving the arms of Callirrhoe,Forever tender, soft, and tremulous.
Thus o'er the ocean faint and farTrailed the gleam of his falchion brightly;Is it a God, or is it a starThat, entranced, I gaze on nightly!
Words in this poem
- refulgent a.
- Casting a bright light; radiant; brilliant; resplendent; shining; splendid; as, refulgent beams. [L. refulgens, p. pr. of refulgere to flash back, to shine bright; pref. re- re- + fulgere to shine. See Fulgent.]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- falchion n.
- A broad-bladed sword, slightly curved, shorter and lighter than the ordinary sword; -- used in the Middle Ages. [OE. fauchon, OF. fauchon, LL. fälcio, fr. L. falx, falcis, a sickle, cf. Gr. falcon; cf. It. falcione. Cf. Defalcation.]
- nightly a.
- Of or pertaining to the night, or to every night; happening or done by night, or every night; as, nightly shades; he kept nightly vigils.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chrysaor 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, Chrysaor, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/chrysaor.html, id L17560.
Form and metre
Chrysaor is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.8 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 barA · dimmerB · starA · glimmerB
- 2 ABAB farA · splendorB · starA · tenderB
- 3 -A-A sea · emulousA · callirrhoe · tremulousA
- 4 ABAB farA · brightlyB · starA · nightlyB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Just above yon sandy bar, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| As the day grows fainter and dimmer, | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| Lonely and lovely, a single star | 9 | /˘·/˘·/˘· |
| Lights the air with a dusky glimmer | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Into the ocean faint and far | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Falls the trail of its golden splendor, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| And the gleam of that single star | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Is ever refulgent, soft, and tender. | 9 | ·/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Chrysaor, rising out of the sea, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Showed thus glorious and thus emulous, | 9 | ··/˘··/˘˘ |
| Leaving the arms of Callirrhoe, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Forever tender, soft, and tremulous. | 9 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Thus o'er the ocean faint and far | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Trailed the gleam of his falchion brightly; | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Is it a God, or is it a star | 9 | ········· |
| That, entranced, I gaze on nightly! | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
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.