The Altar
Alone, remote, nor witting where I went,I found an altar builded in a dream --A fiery place, whereof there was a gleamSo swift, so searching, and so eloquentOf upward promise, that love's murmur, blentWith sorrow's warning, gave but a supremeUnending impulse to that human streamWhose flood was all for the flame's fury bent.
Alas! I said, -- the world is in the wrong.But the same quenchless fever of unrestThat thrilled the foremost of that martyred throngThrilled me, and I awoke . . . and was the sameBewildered insect plunging for the flameThat burns, and must burn somehow for the best.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- whereof adv.
- Of which; of whom; formerly, also, with which; -- used relatively.
- blent p. p.
- Blinded. Also (Chaucer), 3d sing. pres. Blindeth.
- quenchless a.
- Incapable of being quenched; inextinguishable; as, quenchless fire or fury.
- unrest n.
- Want of rest or repose; unquietness; sleeplessness; uneasiness; disquietude.
- somehow adv.
- In one way or another; in some way not yet known or designated; by some means; as, the thing must be done somehow; he lives somehow.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Altar is in the public domain. This text is taken from Children of the Night, Project Gutenberg ebook #313; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Arlington Robinson, The Altar, in The Children of the Night (1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #313, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/robinson-children-of-night/the-altar.html, id L08013.
Form and metre
The Altar is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 64% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABBAABBA wentA · dreamB · gleamB · eloquentA · blentA · supremeB · streamB · bentA
- 2 ABACCB wrongA · unrestB · throngA · sameC · flameC · bestB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Alone, remote, nor witting where I went, | 10 | ˘/˘/·/˘··· |
| I found an altar builded in a dream -- | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| A fiery place, whereof there was a gleam | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| So swift, so searching, and so eloquent | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Of upward promise, that love's murmur, blent | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| With sorrow's warning, gave but a supreme | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Unending impulse to that human stream | 10 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Whose flood was all for the flame's fury bent. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Alas! I said, -- the world is in the wrong. | 10 | ˘/········ |
| But the same quenchless fever of unrest | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| That thrilled the foremost of that martyred throng | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Thrilled me, and I awoke . . . and was the same | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Bewildered insect plunging for the flame | 10 | ˘/˘/·/˘··· |
| That burns, and must burn somehow for the best. | 10 | ·····/···· |
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.