Fragment: 'The Viewless and Invisible Consequence'
The viewless and invisible ConsequenceWatches thy goings-out, and comings-in,And...hovers o'er thy guilty sleep,Unveiling every new-born deed, and thoughtsMore ghastly than those deeds--
Words in this poem
- viewless a.
- Not perceivable by the eye; invisible; unseen.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fragment: 'The Viewless and Invisible Consequence' 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: 'The Viewless and Invisible Consequence', 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/fragment-the-viewless-and-invisible-consequence.html, id L16428.
Form and metre
Fragment: 'The Viewless and Invisible Consequence' is 5 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter. 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The viewless and invisible Consequence | 11 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘/˘˘ |
| Watches thy goings-out, and comings-in, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| And...hovers o'er thy guilty sleep, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Unveiling every new-born deed, and thoughts | 10 | ˘/˘/˘····· |
| More ghastly than those deeds-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.