Continued
HOW smiles he at a generation rankedIn gloomy noddings over life! They pass.Not he to feed upon a breast unthanked,Or eye a beauteous face in a cracked glass.But he can spy that little twist of brainWhich moved some weighty leader of the blind,Unwitting ’twas the goad of personal pain,To view in curst eclipse our Mother’s mind,And show us of some rigid harridanThe wretched bondmen till the end of time.O lived the Master now to paint us Man,That little twist of brain would ring a chimeOf whence it came and what it caused, to startThunders of laughter, clearing air and heart.
Words in this poem
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- cracked a.
- Coarsely ground or broken; as, cracked wheat.
- unwitting a.
- Not knowing; unconscious; ignorant.
- curst a.
- Froward; malignant; mischievous; malicious; snarling. [SeeCurse.]
- harridan n.
- A worn-out strumpet; a vixenish woman; a hag. [F. haridelle a worn-out horse, jade.]
- chime n.
- The harmonious sound of bells, or of musical instruments. [OE. chimbe, prop., cymbal, OF. cymbe, cymble, in a dialectic form, chymble, F. cymbale, L. cymbalum, fr. Gr. Cymbal.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Continued is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems — Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #1381; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George Meredith, Continued, in Poems, Volume I (1851–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1381, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/meredith-poems/continued.html, id L13207.
Form and metre
Continued is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% 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 ABABCDCD-E-EFF rankedA · passB · unthankedA · glassB · brainC · blindD · painC · mindD · harridan · timeE · man · chimeE · startF · heartF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| HOW smiles he at a generation ranked | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| In gloomy noddings over life! They pass. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Not he to feed upon a breast unthanked, | 10 | ·········· |
| Or eye a beauteous face in a cracked glass. | 11 | ···/˘˘····· |
| But he can spy that little twist of brain | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Which moved some weighty leader of the blind, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Unwitting ’twas the goad of personal pain, | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| To view in curst eclipse our Mother’s mind, | 10 | ····˘///˘· |
| And show us of some rigid harridan | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| The wretched bondmen till the end of time. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| O lived the Master now to paint us Man, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| That little twist of brain would ring a chime | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Of whence it came and what it caused, to start | 10 | ·········· |
| Thunders of laughter, clearing air and heart. | 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.