Antistrophe 2A
From Freedom's form divine,From Nature's inmost shrine,Strip every impious gawd, rendError veil by veil;O'er Ruin desolate,O'er Falsehood's fallen state,Sit thou sublime, unawed; be the Destroyer pale!And equal laws be thine,And winged words let sail,Freighted with truth even from the throne of God:That wealth, surviving fate,Be thine.--All hail!
Words in this poem
- inmost a.
- Deepest within; farthest from the surface or external part; innermost. [OE. innemest, AS. innemest, a double superlative form fr. inne within, fr. in in. The modern form is due to confusion with most. See In, and cf. Aftermost, Fore]
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- surviving a.
- Remaining alive; yet living or existing; as, surviving friends; surviving customs.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Antistrophe 2A is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #4798; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Antistrophe 2A, in Ode to the West Wind, and Other Poems (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/antistrophe-2a.html, id L16406.
Form and metre
Antistrophe 2A is 12 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 8% 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 AA-BCCBAB-CB divineA · shrineA · rend · veilB · desolateC · stateC · paleB · thineA · sailB · god · fateC · hailB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| From Freedom's form divine, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| From Nature's inmost shrine, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Strip every impious gawd, rend | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘·· |
| Error veil by veil; | 5 | /˘··· |
| O'er Ruin desolate, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| O'er Falsehood's fallen state, | 6 | ·/·/˘· |
| Sit thou sublime, unawed; be the Destroyer pale! | 12 | ··˘/····˘/˘· |
| And equal laws be thine, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And winged words let sail, | 6 | ··˘··· |
| Freighted with truth even from the throne of God: | 10 | /˘··/····· |
| That wealth, surviving fate, | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Be thine.--All hail! | 4 | ···· |
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.