To Howard Pyle
At her light touch, behold! a voice proceedsOut of all things to chide our sordid deeds;A beauty breaks, a beauty ever strange,The Changeless that is back of all the change.Lightly it comes as when a rose would be—Takes feature yet remains a mystery.
I hear a burst of music on the night!Look at the white whirl of their bodies, seeThe sweep of arms seraphical and free,And over their heads a rush of circling light,That draws them on with mystery and might:But O the wild dance and the deathless song,And O the lifted faces glad and strong—Eternal passion burning still and white!
But she who glances downward, who is she,Her face stilled with the shadow of a pain?The one who let all go for that mad chance?And does some sudden gust of memory,Bringing the earth, sweep back into the brain?...But O the wild white whirl of the wild dance!
Words in this poem
- sordid a.
- Filthy; foul; dirty. [L. sordidus, fr. sordere to be filthy or dirty; probably akin to E. swart: cf. F. sordide. See Swart, a.]
- changeless a.
- That can not be changed; constant; as, a changeless purpose.
- seraphical a.
- Of or pertaining to a seraph; becoming, or suitable to, a seraph; angelic; sublime; pure; refined. [Cf. F. séraphique.]
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Howard Pyle is in the public domain. This text is taken from Lincoln & other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #54527; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Markham, To Howard Pyle, in Lincoln and Other Poems (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #54527, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/markham-lincoln/to-howard-pyle.html, id L10805.
Form and metre
To Howard Pyle is 20 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABB-- proceedsA · deedsA · strangeB · changeB · be · mystery
- 2 ABBAACCA nightA · seeB · freeB · lightA · mightA · songC · strongC · whiteA
- 3 -AB-AB she · painA · chanceB · memory · brainA · danceB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| At her light touch, behold! a voice proceeds | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| Out of all things to chide our sordid deeds; | 10 | ······//˘· |
| A beauty breaks, a beauty ever strange, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| The Changeless that is back of all the change. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Lightly it comes as when a rose would be— | 10 | /˘········ |
| Takes feature yet remains a mystery. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘˘ |
| I hear a burst of music on the night! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Look at the white whirl of their bodies, see | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The sweep of arms seraphical and free, | 10 | ·········· |
| And over their heads a rush of circling light, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That draws them on with mystery and might: | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| But O the wild dance and the deathless song, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And O the lifted faces glad and strong— | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Eternal passion burning still and white! | 10 | ˘/˘/˘/˘··· |
| But she who glances downward, who is she, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Her face stilled with the shadow of a pain? | 10 | ·····/···· |
| The one who let all go for that mad chance? | 10 | ·········· |
| And does some sudden gust of memory, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Bringing the earth, sweep back into the brain?... | 10 | /˘········ |
| But O the wild white whirl of the wild dance! | 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.