The Coming Storm: A Picture by S. R. Gifford, and Owned by E. B.
“The Coming Storm:”A Picture by S.R. Gifford, and owned by E.B.Included in the N.A. Exhibition, April, 1865.
All feeling hearts must feel for himWho felt this picture. Presage dim--Dim inklings from the shadowy sphereFixed him and fascinated here.
A demon-cloud like the mountain oneBurst on a spirit as mildAs this urned lake, the home of shades.But Shakspeare’s pensive child
Never the lines had lightly scanned,Steeped in fable, steeped in fate;The Hamlet in his heart was ’ware,Such hearts can antedate.
No utter surprise can come to himWho reaches Shakspeare’s core;That which we seek and shun is there--Man’s final lore.
Words in this poem
- antedate n.
- Prior date; a date antecedent to another which is the actual date.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Coming Storm: A Picture by S. R. Gifford, and Owned by E. B. is in the public domain. This text is taken from Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War, Project Gutenberg ebook #12384; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Herman Melville, The Coming Storm: A Picture by S. R. Gifford, and Owned by E. B., in Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12384, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/melville-battle-pieces/the-coming-storm-a-picture-by-s-r-gifford-and-owned-by-e-b.html, id L26272.
Form and metre
The Coming Storm: A Picture by S. R. Gifford, and Owned by E. B. is 19 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in common 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.
- 2 AABB himA · dimA · sphereB · hereB
- 3 -A-A one · mildA · shades · childA
- 4 -A-A scanned · fateA · ware · antedateA
- 5 -A-A him · coreA · there · loreA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| “The Coming Storm:” | 4 | ·/˘· |
| A Picture by S.R. Gifford, and owned by E.B. | 13 | ·/˘···/˘····· |
| Included in the N.A. Exhibition, April, 1865. | 13 | ˘/˘·····˘/˘/˘ |
| All feeling hearts must feel for him | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Who felt this picture. Presage dim-- | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Dim inklings from the shadowy sphere | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Fixed him and fascinated here. | 8 | ···/˘·˘· |
| A demon-cloud like the mountain one | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Burst on a spirit as mild | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| As this urned lake, the home of shades. | 8 | ········ |
| But Shakspeare’s pensive child | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Never the lines had lightly scanned, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Steeped in fable, steeped in fate; | 8 | ·˘·/˘··· |
| The Hamlet in his heart was ’ware, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Such hearts can antedate. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| No utter surprise can come to him | 9 | ·/˘˘/···· |
| Who reaches Shakspeare’s core; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| That which we seek and shun is there-- | 8 | ········ |
| Man’s final lore. | 4 | ·/˘· |
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.