Cancelled Fragments of Julian and Maddalo
'What think you the dead are?' 'Why, dust and clay,What should they be?' ''Tis the last hour of day.Look on the west, how beautiful it isVaulted with radiant vapours! The deep blissOf that unutterable light has madeThe edges of that cloud ... fadeInto a hue, like some harmonious thought,Wasting itself on that which it had wrought,Till it dies ... and ... betweenThe light hues of the tender, pure, serene,And infinite tranquillity of heaven.Ay, beautiful! but when not...''Perhaps the only comfort which remainsIs the unheeded clanking of my chains,The which I make, and call it melody.'
About this text
Cancelled Fragments of Julian and Maddalo is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #4797; 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, Cancelled Fragments of Julian and Maddalo, in The Complete Poetical Works, Volume I (1813–1820), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4797, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-poems/cancelled-fragments-of-julian-and-maddalo.html, id L00225.
Form and metre
Cancelled Fragments of Julian and Maddalo is 15 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 40% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AA--BBCCDDD-EE- clayA · dayA · is · bliss · madeB · fadeB · thoughtC · wroughtC · betweenD · sereneD · heavenD · not · remainsE · chainsE · melody
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 'What think you the dead are?' 'Why, dust and clay, | 10 | ·········· |
| What should they be?' ''Tis the last hour of day. | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Look on the west, how beautiful it is | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Vaulted with radiant vapours! The deep bliss | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Of that unutterable light has made | 10 | ··˘/˘˘˘··· |
| The edges of that cloud ... fade | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Into a hue, like some harmonious thought, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Wasting itself on that which it had wrought, | 10 | /˘˘/······ |
| Till it dies ... and ... between | 6 | ······ |
| The light hues of the tender, pure, serene, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| And infinite tranquillity of heaven. | 11 | ·/˘˘˘/˘˘·/˘ |
| Ay, beautiful! but when not...' | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| 'Perhaps the only comfort which remains | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Is the unheeded clanking of my chains, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| The which I make, and call it melody.' | 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.