'O That a Chariot of Cloud Were Mine'
O that a chariot of cloud were mine!Of cloud which the wild tempest weaves in air,When the moon over the ocean's lineIs spreading the locks of her bright gray hair.O that a chariot of cloud were mine!I would sail on the waves of the billowy windTo the mountain peak and the rocky lake,And the...
Words in this poem
- billowy a.
- Of or pertaining to billows; swelling or swollen into large waves; full of billows or surges; resembling billows.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
'O That a Chariot of Cloud Were Mine' 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, 'O That a Chariot of Cloud Were Mine', in The Complete Poetical Works, Volume II (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/o-that-a-chariot-of-cloud-were-mine.html, id L16323.
Form and metre
'O That a Chariot of Cloud Were Mine' is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%). 81% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 25% 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 ABABA--- mineA · airB · lineA · hairB · mineA · wind · lake · the
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O that a chariot of cloud were mine! | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Of cloud which the wild tempest weaves in air, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| When the moon over the ocean's line | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Is spreading the locks of her bright gray hair. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| O that a chariot of cloud were mine! | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| I would sail on the waves of the billowy wind | 12 | ········/˘˘· |
| To the mountain peak and the rocky lake, | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| And the... | 2 | ·· |
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.