Lines
"November, 1815". Reprinted in the "Posthumous Poems", 1824. See
The cold earth slept below,Above the cold sky shone;And all around, with a chilling sound,From caves of ice and fields of snow,The breath of night like death did flowBeneath the sinking moon.
The wintry hedge was black,The green grass was not seen,The birds did rest on the bare thorn's breast,Whose roots, beside the pathway track,Had bound their folds o'er many a crackWhich the frost had made between.
Thine eyes glowed in the glareOf the moon's dying light;As a fen-fire's beam on a sluggish streamGleams dimly, so the moon shone there,And it yellowed the strings of thy raven hair,That shook in the wind of night.
The moon made thy lips pale, beloved--The wind made thy bosom chill--The night did shed on thy dear headIts frozen dew, and thou didst lieWhere the bitter breath of the naked skyMight visit thee at will.
Words in this poem
- posthumous a.
- Born after the death of the father, or taken from the dead body of the mother; as, a posthumous son or daughter. [L. posthumus, postumus, properly, last; hence, late born (applied to children born after the father's death, or after he had made his will), superl. of posterus]
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
- glare v. i.
- To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
- dimly adv.
- In a dim or obscure manner; not brightly or clearly; with imperfect sight.
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lines 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, Lines, in The Complete Poetical Works, Volume II (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/lines.html, id L16303.
Form and metre
Lines is 25 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 32% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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.
- 2 A--AA- belowA · shone · sound · snowA · flowA · moon
- 3 AB-AAB blackA · seenB · breast · trackA · crackA · betweenB
- 4 AB-AAB glareA · lightB · stream · thereA · hairA · nightB
- 5 -A-BBA beloved · chillA · head · lieB · skyB · willA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "November, 1815". Reprinted in the "Posthumous Poems", 1824. See | 13 | ˘/˘˘/˘··/˘/˘· |
| The cold earth slept below, | 6 | ······ |
| Above the cold sky shone; | 6 | ······ |
| And all around, with a chilling sound, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| From caves of ice and fields of snow, | 8 | ········ |
| The breath of night like death did flow | 8 | ········ |
| Beneath the sinking moon. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The wintry hedge was black, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The green grass was not seen, | 6 | ······ |
| The birds did rest on the bare thorn's breast, | 9 | ········· |
| Whose roots, beside the pathway track, | 8 | ··˘/·/·· |
| Had bound their folds o'er many a crack | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Which the frost had made between. | 7 | ······· |
| Thine eyes glowed in the glare | 6 | ······ |
| Of the moon's dying light; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| As a fen-fire's beam on a sluggish stream | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Gleams dimly, so the moon shone there, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And it yellowed the strings of thy raven hair, | 11 | ··/˘····/˘· |
| That shook in the wind of night. | 7 | ······· |
| The moon made thy lips pale, beloved-- | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| The wind made thy bosom chill-- | 7 | ····/˘· |
| The night did shed on thy dear head | 8 | ········ |
| Its frozen dew, and thou didst lie | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Where the bitter breath of the naked sky | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| Might visit thee at will. | 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.