The Poetry of Shelley
SEE’ST thou a Skylark whose glistening winglets ascendingQuiver like pulses beneath the melodious dawn?Deep in the heart-yearning distance of heaven it flutters—Wisdom and beauty and love are the treasures it brings down at eve.
Words in this poem
- skylark n.
- A lark that mounts and sings as it files, especially the common species (Alauda arvensis) found in Europe and in some parts of Asia, and celebrated for its melodious song; -- called also sky laverock.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Poetry of Shelley 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, The Poetry of Shelley, in Poems, Volume I (1851–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1381, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/meredith-poems/the-poetry-of-shelley.html, id L13136.
Form and metre
The Poetry of Shelley is 4 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 13.5 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| SEE’ST thou a Skylark whose glistening winglets ascending | 13 | ···/··/˘··˘/˘ |
| Quiver like pulses beneath the melodious dawn? | 12 | /˘·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Deep in the heart-yearning distance of heaven it flutters— | 13 | ····/˘/˘·/·/˘ |
| Wisdom and beauty and love are the treasures it brings down at eve. | 16 | /˘·/˘····/˘····· |
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.