Fragment: 'I Stood upon a Heaven-Cleaving Turret'
I stood upon a heaven-cleaving turretWhich overlooked a wide Metropolis--And in the temple of my heart my SpiritLay prostrate, and with parted lips did kissThe dust of Desolations [altar] hearth--And with a voice too faint to falterIt shook that trembling fane with its weak prayer'Twas noon,--the sleeping skies were blueThe city
Words in this poem
- falter v. t.
- To thrash in the chaff; also, to cleanse or sift, as barley.
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- fane n.
- A temple; a place consecrated to religion; a church. [L. fanum a place dedicated to some deity, a sanctuary, fr. fari to speak. See Fame.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fragment: 'I Stood upon a Heaven-Cleaving Turret' 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, Fragment: 'I Stood upon a Heaven-Cleaving Turret', in The Complete Poetical Works, Volume II (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/fragment-i-stood-upon-a-heaven-cleaving-turret.html, id L16476.
Form and metre
Fragment: 'I Stood upon a Heaven-Cleaving Turret' is 9 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 78% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -A-A----- turret · metropolisA · spirit · kissA · hearth · falter · prayer · blue · city
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I stood upon a heaven-cleaving turret | 11 | ·····/˘/˘/˘ |
| Which overlooked a wide Metropolis-- | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘˘ |
| And in the temple of my heart my Spirit | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Lay prostrate, and with parted lips did kiss | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The dust of Desolations [altar] hearth-- | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| And with a voice too faint to falter | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| It shook that trembling fane with its weak prayer | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| 'Twas noon,--the sleeping skies were blue | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The city | 3 | ·/˘ |
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.