Cancelled Fragments of the Ode to Heaven
TheIsDown through the lampless deep of songI am drawn and driven along--
When a Nation screams aloudLike an eagle from the cloudWhen a...
Watch the look askance and old--See neglect, and falsehood fold...
Words in this poem
- lampless a.
- Being without a lamp, or without light; hence, being without appreciation; dull.
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
- askance adv.
- Sideways; obliquely; with a side glance; with disdain, envy, or suspicion. [Cf. D. schuin, schuins, sideways, schuiven to shove, schuinte slope. Cf. Asquint.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Cancelled Fragments of the Ode to Heaven 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, Cancelled Fragments of the Ode to Heaven, in The Complete Poetical Works, Volume II (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/cancelled-fragments-of-the-ode-to-heaven.html, id L16356.
Form and metre
Cancelled Fragments of the Ode to Heaven is 9 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.3 syllables. 56% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 the · is · songA · alongA
- 2 AA- aloudA · cloudA · a
- 3 AA oldA · foldA
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The | 1 | · |
| Is | 1 | · |
| Down through the lampless deep of song | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I am drawn and driven along-- | 8 | ····/˘˘/ |
| When a Nation screams aloud | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Like an eagle from the cloud | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| When a... | 2 | ·· |
| Watch the look askance and old-- | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| See neglect, and falsehood fold... | 7 | ·˘/·/·· |
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.