Chagrin
Caught still as Absalom,Surely the air hangsFrom the swayless cloud-boughsLike hair of AbsalomCaught and hanging still.
From the imagined weightOf spaces in a skyOf mute chagrin my thoughtsHang like branch-clung hairTo trunks of silence swung,With the choked soul weighing downInto thick emptiness.Christ, end this hanging death,For endlessness hangs therefrom!
Invisibly branches breakFrom invisible trees:The cloud-woods where we rush(Our eyes holding so much),Which we must ride dim ages roundEre the hands (we dream) can touch,We ride, we ride—before the morningThe secret roots of the sun to tread—And suddenlyWe are lifted of all we know,And hang from implacable boughs.
Words in this poem
- chagrin n.
- Vexation; mortification. [F., fr. chagrin shagreen, a particular kind of rough and grained leather; also a rough fishskin used for graters and files; hence (Fig.), a gnawing, corroding g]
- clung a.
- Wasted away; shrunken. [Prop. p. p. fr. OE. clingen to wither. See Cling, v. i.]
- endlessness n.
- The quality of being endless; perpetuity. [AS. endeleásnys.]
- invisibly adv.
- In an invisible manner, Denham.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chagrin is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Isaac Rosenberg, Project Gutenberg ebook #66889; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Isaac Rosenberg, Chagrin, in Poems (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66889, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rosenberg-poems/chagrin.html, id L02540.
Form and metre
Chagrin is 25 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.4 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 52% 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 A--A- absalomA · hangs · boughs · absalomA · still
- 3 ---A-A----- break · trees · rush · muchA · round · touchA · morning · tread · suddenly · know · boughs
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Caught still as Absalom, | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Surely the air hangs | 5 | /˘··· |
| From the swayless cloud-boughs | 6 | ······ |
| Like hair of Absalom | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Caught and hanging still. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| From the imagined weight | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Of spaces in a sky | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Of mute chagrin my thoughts | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Hang like branch-clung hair | 5 | ····· |
| To trunks of silence swung, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| With the choked soul weighing down | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Into thick emptiness. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Christ, end this hanging death, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| For endlessness hangs therefrom! | 7 | ·/˘˘·˘/ |
| Invisibly branches break | 7 | ˘/˘˘/˘· |
| From invisible trees: | 6 | ·˘/˘˘· |
| The cloud-woods where we rush | 6 | ······ |
| (Our eyes holding so much), | 6 | /·/˘·· |
| Which we must ride dim ages round | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Ere the hands (we dream) can touch, | 7 | ······· |
| We ride, we ride—before the morning | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| The secret roots of the sun to tread— | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| And suddenly | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| We are lifted of all we know, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| And hang from implacable boughs. | 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.