Nearest the Dearest
Till Eve was brought to Adam, heA solitary desert trod,Though in the great societyOf nature, angels, and of God.If one slight column counterweighsThe ocean, ’tis the Maker’s law,Who deems obedience better praiseThan sacrifice of erring awe.
About this text
Nearest the Dearest is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Angel in the House, Project Gutenberg ebook #4099; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Coventry Patmore, Nearest the Dearest, in The Angel in the House (1854–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4099, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/patmore-angel/nearest-the-dearest.html, id L12276.
Form and metre
Nearest the Dearest is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 -A-ABCBC he · trodA · society · godA · counterweighsB · lawC · praiseB · aweC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Till Eve was brought to Adam, he | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A solitary desert trod, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Though in the great society | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| Of nature, angels, and of God. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| If one slight column counterweighs | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The ocean, ’tis the Maker’s law, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Who deems obedience better praise | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Than sacrifice of erring awe. | 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.