Variation of the Song of the Moon ("Prometheus Unbound", Act 4.)
As a violet's gentle eyeGazes on the azure skyUntil its hue grows like what it beholds;As a gray and empty mistLies like solid amethystOver the western mountain it enfolds,When the sunset sleepsUpon its snow;As a strain of sweetest soundWraps itself the wind aroundUntil the voiceless wind be music too;As aught dark, vain, and dull,Basking in what is beautiful,Is full of light and love--
Words in this poem
- amethyst
- A variety of crystallized quartz, of a purple or bluish violet color, of different shades. It is much used as a jeweler's stone. [F. ametiste, amatiste, F. améthyste, L. amethystus, fr. Gr. Mead.]
- voiceless a.
- Having no voice, utterance, or vote; silent; mute; dumb.
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Variation of the Song of the Moon ("Prometheus Unbound", Act 4.) 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, Variation of the Song of the Moon ("Prometheus Unbound", Act 4.), 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/variation-of-the-song-of-the-moon-prometheus-unbound-act-4.html, id L16383.
Form and metre
Variation of the Song of the Moon ("Prometheus Unbound", Act 4.) is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.3 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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.
- 1 AABCCB--DD-EE- eyeA · skyA · beholdsB · mistC · amethystC · enfoldsB · sleeps · snow · soundD · aroundD · too · dullE · beautifulE · love
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| As a violet's gentle eye | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| Gazes on the azure sky | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Until its hue grows like what it beholds; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| As a gray and empty mist | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Lies like solid amethyst | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| Over the western mountain it enfolds, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| When the sunset sleeps | 5 | ··/·· |
| Upon its snow; | 4 | ···· |
| As a strain of sweetest sound | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Wraps itself the wind around | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Until the voiceless wind be music too; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| As aught dark, vain, and dull, | 6 | ······ |
| Basking in what is beautiful, | 8 | /˘···/˘˘ |
| Is full of light and love-- | 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.