Beauty's Pageant
What dawn-pulse at the heart of heaven, or lastIncarnate flower of culminating day,--What marshalled marvels on the skirts of May,Or song full-quired, sweet June's encomiast;What glory of change by nature's hand amass'dCan vie with all those moods of varying graceWhich o'er one loveliest woman's form and faceWithin this hour, within this room, have pass'd?
Love's very vesture and elect disguiseWas each fine movement,--wonder new-begotOf lily or swan or swan-stemmed galiot;Joy to his sight who now the sadlier sighs,Parted again; and sorrow yet for eyesUnborn that read these words and saw her not.
Words in this poem
- incarnate a.
- Not in the flesh; spiritual. [Pref. in- not + carnate.]
- encomiast n.
- One who praises; a panegyrist. [Gr. encomiaste. See Encomium.]
- unborn a.
- Not born; no yet brought into life; being still to appear; future.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Beauty's Pageant is in the public domain. This text is taken from The House of Life, Project Gutenberg ebook #3692; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Beauty's Pageant, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/beauty-s-pageant.html, id L20937.
Form and metre
Beauty's Pageant is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 ABBAACCA lastA · dayB · mayB · encomiastA · amass'dA · graceC · faceC · pass'dA
- 2 A--AA- disguiseA · begot · galiot · sighsA · eyesA · not
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What dawn-pulse at the heart of heaven, or last | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Incarnate flower of culminating day,-- | 10 | ˘/˘/·/˘·˘· |
| What marshalled marvels on the skirts of May, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Or song full-quired, sweet June's encomiast; | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| What glory of change by nature's hand amass'd | 11 | ·/˘···/˘·˘/ |
| Can vie with all those moods of varying grace | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Which o'er one loveliest woman's form and face | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Within this hour, within this room, have pass'd? | 10 | ···/······ |
| Love's very vesture and elect disguise | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘/ |
| Was each fine movement,--wonder new-begot | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Of lily or swan or swan-stemmed galiot; | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘˘ |
| Joy to his sight who now the sadlier sighs, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Parted again; and sorrow yet for eyes | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘··· |
| Unborn that read these words and saw her not. | 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.