Fragment: 'Unrisen Splendour of the Brightest Sun'
Unrisen splendour of the brightest sun,To rise upon our darkness, if the starNow beckoning thee out of thy misty throneCould thaw the clouds which wage an obscure warWith thy young brightness!
Words in this poem
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
- thaw v. i.
- To melt, dissolve, or become fluid; to soften; -- said of that which is frozen; as, the ice thaws.
- wage v. i.
- To bind one's self; to engage.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fragment: 'Unrisen Splendour of the Brightest Sun' 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: 'Unrisen Splendour of the Brightest Sun', in The Complete Poetical Works, Volume II (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/fragment-unrisen-splendour-of-the-brightest-sun.html, id L16432.
Form and metre
Fragment: 'Unrisen Splendour of the Brightest Sun' 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. 93% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Unrisen splendour of the brightest sun, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| To rise upon our darkness, if the star | 10 | ····//˘··· |
| Now beckoning thee out of thy misty throne | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Could thaw the clouds which wage an obscure war | 10 | ·······˘/· |
| With thy young brightness! | 5 | ···/˘ |
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.