The Monochord
Is it this sky's vast vault or ocean's soundThat is Life's self and draws my life from me,And by instinct ineffable decreeHolds my breath quailing on the bitter bound?Nay, is it Life or Death, thus thunder-crown'd,That 'mid the tide of all emergencyNow notes my separate wave, and to what seaIts difficult eddies labour in the ground?
Oh! what is this that knows the road I came,The flame turned cloud, the cloud returned to flame,The lifted shifted steeps and all the way?--That draws round me at last this wind-warm space,And in regenerate rapture turns my faceUpon the devious coverts of dismay?
Words in this poem
- regenerate v. t.
- To generate or produce anew; to reproduce; to give new life, strength, or vigor to.
- devious a.
- Out of a straight line; winding; varying from directness; as, a devious path or way. [L. devius; de + via way. See Viaduct.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Monochord 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, The Monochord, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/the-monochord.html, id L20995.
Form and metre
The Monochord is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
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 ABBAA-BA soundA · meB · decreeB · boundA · crown'dA · emergency · seaB · groundA
- 2 AABCCB cameA · flameA · wayB · spaceC · faceC · dismayB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Is it this sky's vast vault or ocean's sound | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That is Life's self and draws my life from me, | 10 | ·········· |
| And by instinct ineffable decree | 10 | ··/˘˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Holds my breath quailing on the bitter bound? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Nay, is it Life or Death, thus thunder-crown'd, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That 'mid the tide of all emergency | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Now notes my separate wave, and to what sea | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Its difficult eddies labour in the ground? | 10 | ·/˘/˘/···· |
| Oh! what is this that knows the road I came, | 10 | ·········· |
| The flame turned cloud, the cloud returned to flame, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| The lifted shifted steeps and all the way?-- | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| That draws round me at last this wind-warm space, | 10 | ·········· |
| And in regenerate rapture turns my face | 11 | ··˘/˘·/˘··· |
| Upon the devious coverts of dismay? | 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.