Milton
I pace the sounding sea-beach and beholdHow the voluminous billows roll and run,Upheaving and subsiding, while the sunShines through their sheeted emerald far unrolled,And the ninth wave, slow gathering fold by foldAll its loose-flowing garments into one,Plunges upon the shore, and floods the dunPale reach of sands, and changes them to gold.So in majestic cadence rise and fallThe mighty undulations of thy song,O sightless bard, England's Maeonides!And ever and anon, high over allUplifted, a ninth wave superb and strong,Floods all the soul with its melodious seas.
Words in this poem
- voluminous a.
- Of or pertaining to volume or volumes. Specifically: -- (a) Consisting of many folds, coils, or convolutions. [L. voluminosus: cf. F. volumineux.]
- sightless a.
- Wanting sight; without sight; blind.
- anon adv.
- Straightway; at once. [OE. anoon, anon, anan, lit., in one (moment), fr. AS. on in + an one. See On and One.]
- superb a.
- Grand; magnificent; august; stately; as, a superb edifice; a superb colonnade. [F. superbe, L. superbus, fr. super over. See Super-.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Milton 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, Milton, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/milton.html, id L17742.
Form and metre
Milton is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 43% 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 ABBAABBACD-CD- beholdA · runB · sunB · unrolledA · foldA · oneB · dunB · goldA · fallC · songD · maeonides · allC · strongD · seas
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I pace the sounding sea-beach and behold | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| How the voluminous billows roll and run, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Upheaving and subsiding, while the sun | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Shines through their sheeted emerald far unrolled, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And the ninth wave, slow gathering fold by fold | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| All its loose-flowing garments into one, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Plunges upon the shore, and floods the dun | 10 | /˘········ |
| Pale reach of sands, and changes them to gold. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| So in majestic cadence rise and fall | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| The mighty undulations of thy song, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| O sightless bard, England's Maeonides! | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| And ever and anon, high over all | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| Uplifted, a ninth wave superb and strong, | 10 | /˘˘···˘/·· |
| Floods all the soul with its melodious seas. | 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.