The Soul's Sphere
Come prisoned moon in steep cloud-fastnesses,--Throned queen and thralled; some dying sun whose pyreBlazed with momentous memorable fire;--Who hath not yearned and fed his heart with these?Who, sleepless, hath not anguished to appeaseTragical shadow's realm of sound and sightConjectured in the lamentable night?...Lo! the soul's sphere of infinite images!
What sense shall count them? Whether it forecastThe rose-winged hours that flutter in the vanOf Love's unquestioning unreveale'd span,--Visions of golden futures: or that lastWild pageant of the accumulated pastThat clangs and flashes for a drowning man.
Words in this poem
- pyre n.
- A funeral pile; a combustible heap on which the dead are burned; hence, any pile to be burnt. [L. pure, Gr. Fire.]
- momentous a.
- Of moment or consequence; very important; weighty; as, a momentous decision; momentous affairs. [Cf. L. momentosus rapid, momentary.]
- memorable a.
- Worthy to be remembered; very important or remarkable. [L. memorabilis, fr. memorare to bring to remembrance, fr. memor mindful, remembering. See Memory, and cf. Memorabilia.]
- sleepless a.
- Having no sleep; wakeful.
- tragical a.
- Of or pertaining to tragedy; of the nature or character of tragedy; as, a tragic poem; a tragic play or representation. [L. tragicus, Gr.tragique.]
- 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,]
- forecast v. t.
- To plan beforehand; to scheme; to project.
- pageant n.
- A theatrical exhibition; a spectacle. [OE. pagent, pagen, originally, a movable scaffold or stage, hence, what was exhibited on it, fr. LL. pagina, akin to pangere to fasten; cf. L. pagina page, leaf]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Soul's Sphere 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 Soul's Sphere, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/the-soul-s-sphere.html, id L20979.
Form and metre
The Soul's Sphere is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
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 fastnessesA · pyreB · fireB · theseA · appeaseA · sightC · nightC · imagesA
- 2 ABBAAB forecastA · vanB · spanB · lastA · pastA · manB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Come prisoned moon in steep cloud-fastnesses,-- | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| Throned queen and thralled; some dying sun whose pyre | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Blazed with momentous memorable fire;-- | 11 | ··˘/˘/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Who hath not yearned and fed his heart with these? | 10 | ·········· |
| Who, sleepless, hath not anguished to appease | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Tragical shadow's realm of sound and sight | 10 | ···/······ |
| Conjectured in the lamentable night?... | 10 | ˘/˘··˘/˘˘· |
| Lo! the soul's sphere of infinite images! | 11 | ·····/˘˘/˘˘ |
| What sense shall count them? Whether it forecast | 10 | ········/· |
| The rose-winged hours that flutter in the van | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| Of Love's unquestioning unreveale'd span,-- | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| Visions of golden futures: or that last | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Wild pageant of the accumulated past | 11 | ·/˘··˘/˘·˘· |
| That clangs and flashes for a drowning man. | 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.