Hill Top Songs I
Here on the hillAt last the soul sees clear.Desire being stillThe High Unseen appear.The thin grass bendsOne way, and hushed attendsUnknown and gracious ends.Where the sheep's pasturing feetHave cleft the sodsThe mystic light lies sweet;The very clods,In purpling hues elate,Thrill to their fate;The high rock-hollows wait,Expecting gods.
Words in this poem
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- elate a.
- Lifted up; raised; elevated. [L. elatus elevated, fig., elated, proud (the figure, perh., being borrowed from a prancing horse); e out + latus (used as p. p. of ferre to bear), for tlatus, a]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hill Top Songs I is in the public domain. This text is taken from New Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59897; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charles G. D. Roberts, Hill Top Songs I, in New Poems (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59897, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/roberts-new-poems/hill-top-songs-i.html, id L11123.
Form and metre
Hill Top Songs I is 15 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCCCDEDEFFFE. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.2 syllables. 40% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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 ABABCCCDEDEFFFE hillA · clearB · stillA · appearB · bendsC · attendsC · endsC · feetD · sodsE · sweetD · clodsE · elateF · fateF · waitF · godsE
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Here on the hill | 4 | ···· |
| At last the soul sees clear. | 6 | ······ |
| Desire being still | 6 | ˘/˘/˘· |
| The High Unseen appear. | 6 | ··˘/˘/ |
| The thin grass bends | 4 | ···· |
| One way, and hushed attends | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Unknown and gracious ends. | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Where the sheep's pasturing feet | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Have cleft the sods | 4 | ···· |
| The mystic light lies sweet; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The very clods, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| In purpling hues elate, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Thrill to their fate; | 4 | ···· |
| The high rock-hollows wait, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Expecting gods. | 4 | ˘/˘· |
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.