The Invisible Bride
The low-voiced girls that goIn gardens of the Lord,Like flowers of the field they growIn sisterly accord.
Their whispering feet are whiteAlong the leafy ways;They go in whirls of lightToo beautiful for praise.
And in their band forsoothIs one to set me free--The one that touched my youth--The one God gave to me.
She kindles the desireWhereby the gods survive--The white ideal fireThat keeps my soul alive.
Now at the wondrous hour,She leaves her star supreme,And comes in the night’s still power,To touch me with a dream.
Sibyl of mysteryOn roads beyond our ken,Softly she comes to me,And goes to God again.
Words in this poem
- forsooth v. t.
- To address respectfully with the term forsooth.
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- sibyl n.
- A woman supposed to be endowed with a spirit of prophecy.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Invisible Bride is in the public domain. This text is taken from The man with the hoe, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #67012; 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, The Invisible Bride, in The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #67012, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/markham-man-with-hoe/the-invisible-bride.html, id L24781.
Form and metre
The Invisible Bride is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in short measure.
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 goA · lordB · growA · accordB
- 2 ABAB whiteA · waysB · lightA · praiseB
- 3 ABAB forsoothA · freeB · youthA · meB
- 4 ABAB desireA · surviveB · fireA · aliveB
- 5 ABAB hourA · supremeB · powerA · dreamB
- 6 -A-A mystery · kenA · me · againA
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 short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The low-voiced girls that go | 6 | ······ |
| In gardens of the Lord, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Like flowers of the field they grow | 7 | ·/····· |
| In sisterly accord. | 6 | ·/˘˘˘/ |
| Their whispering feet are white | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Along the leafy ways; | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| They go in whirls of light | 6 | ······ |
| Too beautiful for praise. | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| And in their band forsooth | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Is one to set me free-- | 6 | ······ |
| The one that touched my youth-- | 6 | ······ |
| The one God gave to me. | 6 | ······ |
| She kindles the desire | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| Whereby the gods survive-- | 6 | ····˘/ |
| The white ideal fire | 6 | ··˘//˘ |
| That keeps my soul alive. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Now at the wondrous hour, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| She leaves her star supreme, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And comes in the night’s still power, | 7 | ······/ |
| To touch me with a dream. | 6 | ······ |
| Sibyl of mystery | 6 | /˘·/˘˘ |
| On roads beyond our ken, | 6 | ····/· |
| Softly she comes to me, | 6 | /˘···· |
| And goes to God again. | 6 | ····˘/ |
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.