Fragment: 'Ye Gentle Visitations of Calm Thought'
Ye gentle visitations of calm thought--Moods like the memories of happier earth,Which come arrayed in thoughts of little worth,Like stars in clouds by the weak winds enwrought,--But that the clouds depart and stars remain,While they remain, and ye, alas, depart!
Words in this poem
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fragment: 'Ye Gentle Visitations of Calm Thought' 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: 'Ye Gentle Visitations of Calm Thought', in The Complete Poetical Works, Volume II (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/fragment-ye-gentle-visitations-of-calm-thought.html, id L16373.
Form and metre
Fragment: 'Ye Gentle Visitations of Calm Thought' is 6 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
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 ABBA-- thoughtA · earthB · worthB · enwroughtA · remain · depart
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ye gentle visitations of calm thought-- | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Moods like the memories of happier earth, | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Which come arrayed in thoughts of little worth, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Like stars in clouds by the weak winds enwrought,-- | 10 | ·········· |
| But that the clouds depart and stars remain, | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| While they remain, and ye, alas, depart! | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘/ |
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.