Hymn
At morn—at noon—at twilight dim—Maria! thou hast heard my hymn!In joy and woe—in good and ill—Mother of God, be with me still!When the Hours flew brightly by,And not a cloud obscured the sky,My soul, lest it should truant be,Thy grace did guide to thine and thee;Now, when storms of Fate o’ercastDarkly my Present and my Past,Let my Future radiant shineWith sweet hopes of thee and thine!
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hymn is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of Edgar Allan Poe, Project Gutenberg ebook #79019; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edgar Allan Poe, Hymn, in The Complete Poetical Works (1827–1849), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #79019, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poe-poems/hymn.html, id L04170.
Form and metre
Hymn is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEEFF dimA · hymnA · illB · stillB · byC · skyC · beD · theeD · o'ercastE · pastE · shineF · thineF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| At morn—at noon—at twilight dim— | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Maria! thou hast heard my hymn! | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| In joy and woe—in good and ill— | 8 | ········ |
| Mother of God, be with me still! | 8 | /˘······ |
| When the Hours flew brightly by, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| And not a cloud obscured the sky, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| My soul, lest it should truant be, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thy grace did guide to thine and thee; | 8 | ········ |
| Now, when storms of Fate o’ercast | 7 | ······· |
| Darkly my Present and my Past, | 8 | /˘·˘/··· |
| Let my Future radiant shine | 8 | ··/˘/˘˘· |
| With sweet hopes of thee and thine! | 7 | ······· |
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.