Expression
Call—call—and bruise the air:Shatter dumb space!Yea! We will fling this passion everywhere;Leaving no place
For the superb and graveMagnificent throng,The pregnant queens of quietness that braveAnd edge our song
Of wonder at the light(Our life-leased home),Of greeting to our housemates. And in mightOur song shall roam
Life’s heart, a blossoming fireBlown bright by thought,While gleams and fades the infinite desire,Phantasmed naught.
Can this be caught and caged?Wings can be cliptOf eagles, the sun’s gaudy measure gauged,But no sense dipt
In the mystery of sense:The troubled throngOf words break out like smothered fire through denseAnd smouldering wrong.
Words in this poem
- superb a.
- Grand; magnificent; august; stately; as, a superb edifice; a superb colonnade. [F. superbe, L. superbus, fr. super over. See Super-.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- caged a.
- Confined in, or as in, a cage; like a cage or prison.
- gauged p. a.
- Tested or measured by, or conformed to, a gauge. Gauged brick, brick molded, rubbed, or cut to an exact size and shape, for arches or ornamental work.
- smouldering a.
- Being in a state of suppressed activity; quiet but not dead.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Expression 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, Expression, in Poems (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66889, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rosenberg-poems/expression.html, id L02509.
Form and metre
Expression is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.3 syllables. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABAB airA · spaceB · everywhereA · placeB
- 2 ABAB graveA · throngB · braveA · songB
- 3 ABAB lightA · homeB · mightA · roamB
- 4 ABAB fireA · thoughtB · desireA · naughtB
- 5 ABAB cagedA · cliptB · gaugedA · diptB
- 6 ABAB senseA · throngB · denseA · wrongB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Call—call—and bruise the air: | 6 | ······ |
| Shatter dumb space! | 4 | /˘·· |
| Yea! We will fling this passion everywhere; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Leaving no place | 4 | /˘·· |
| For the superb and grave | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Magnificent throng, | 5 | ˘/˘˘· |
| The pregnant queens of quietness that brave | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·· |
| And edge our song | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Of wonder at the light | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| (Our life-leased home), | 6 | /˘··˘· |
| Of greeting to our housemates. And in might | 11 | ·/˘·/······ |
| Our song shall roam | 5 | /˘··· |
| Life’s heart, a blossoming fire | 6 | ···/˘/ |
| Blown bright by thought, | 4 | ···· |
| While gleams and fades the infinite desire, | 9 | ·····/˘˘/ |
| Phantasmed naught. | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Can this be caught and caged? | 6 | ······ |
| Wings can be clipt | 4 | ···· |
| Of eagles, the sun’s gaudy measure gauged, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| But no sense dipt | 4 | ···· |
| In the mystery of sense: | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| The troubled throng | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Of words break out like smothered fire through dense | 10 | ·····/˘/·· |
| And smouldering wrong. | 5 | ····· |
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.