Alabaster
Like this alabaster box whose artIs frail as a cassia-flower, is my heart,Carven with delicate dreams and wroughtWith many a subtle and exquisite thought.
Therein I treasure the spice and scentOf rich and passionate memories blentLike odours of cinnamon, sandal and clove,Of song and sorrow and life and love.
Words in this poem
- carven a.
- Wrought by carving; ornamented by carvings; carved.
- blent p. p.
- Blinded. Also (Chaucer), 3d sing. pres. Blindeth.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Alabaster is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Golden Threshold, with an introduction by Arthur Symons (Hyderabad, 1905; London, John Lane, 1905), Project Gutenberg ebook #680; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sarojini Naidu, Alabaster, in The Golden Threshold (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #680, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-golden-threshold/alabaster.html, id L27490.
Form and metre
Alabaster is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 AABB artA · heartA · wroughtB · thoughtB
- 2 AABB scentA · blentA · cloveB · loveB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Like this alabaster box whose art | 9 | ··/˘·˘··· |
| Is frail as a cassia-flower, is my heart, | 10 | ····/˘/··· |
| Carven with delicate dreams and wrought | 9 | /˘·/˘˘··· |
| With many a subtle and exquisite thought. | 10 | ·/·/˘·/˘˘· |
| Therein I treasure the spice and scent | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Of rich and passionate memories blent | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘˘· |
| Like odours of cinnamon, sandal and clove, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘/˘·· |
| Of song and sorrow and life and love. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
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.