Ecstasy
Cover mine eyes, O my Love!Mine eyes that are weary of blissAs of light that is poignant and strongO silence my lips with a kiss,My lips that are weary of song!
Shelter my soul, O my love!My soul is bent low with the painAnd the burden of love, like the graceOf a flower that is smitten with rain:O shelter my soul from thy face!
Words in this poem
- poignant a.
- Pricking; piercing; sharp; pungent. [F., p. pr. of poindre to sting, fr. L. pungere to prick, sting. See Pungent.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ecstasy 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, Ecstasy, in The Golden Threshold (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #680, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-golden-threshold/ecstasy.html, id L27491.
Form and metre
Ecstasy is 10 lines in 2 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 100%).
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
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 love · blissA · strongB · kissA · songB
- 2 -ABAB love · painA · graceB · rainA · faceB
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Cover mine eyes, O my Love! | 7 | /˘····· |
| Mine eyes that are weary of bliss | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| As of light that is poignant and strong | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| O silence my lips with a kiss, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| My lips that are weary of song! | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Shelter my soul, O my love! | 7 | /˘····· |
| My soul is bent low with the pain | 8 | ········ |
| And the burden of love, like the grace | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Of a flower that is smitten with rain: | 9 | ··/··/˘·· |
| O shelter my soul from thy face! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
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.