Fragment 5
'Twas at this season that Prince AthanasePassed the white Alps--those eagle-baffling mountainsSlept in their shrouds of snow;--beside the ways
The waterfalls were voiceless--for their fountainsWere changed to mines of sunless crystal now,Or by the curdling winds--like brazen wings
Which clanged along the mountain's marble brow--Warped into adamantine fretwork, hungAnd filled with frozen light the chasms below.Vexed by the blast, the great pines groaned and swungUnder their load of [snow]--Such as the eagle sees, when he dives downFrom the gray deserts of wide air,
The shadow of that scene, field after field,Purple and dim and wide...
Words in this poem
- voiceless a.
- Having no voice, utterance, or vote; silent; mute; dumb.
- sunless a.
- Destitute or deprived of the sun or its rays; shaded; shadowed.
- fretwork n.
- Work adorned with frets; ornamental openwork or work in relief, esp. when elaborate and minute in its parts. Heuce, any minute play of light andshade, dark and light, or the like. [6th fret + work.]
- dives n.
- The name popularly given to the rich man in our Lord's parable of the [L., rich.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fragment 5 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, Fragment 5, in Alastor, and Other Poems (1813–1820), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4797, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-poems/fragment-5.html, id L00221.
Form and metre
Fragment 5 is 15 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 55% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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.
- 3 -ABAB-- brow · hungA · belowB · swungA · snowB · down · air
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 'Twas at this season that Prince Athanase | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Passed the white Alps--those eagle-baffling mountains | 11 | ·····/˘/˘/˘ |
| Slept in their shrouds of snow;--beside the ways | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| The waterfalls were voiceless--for their fountains | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Were changed to mines of sunless crystal now, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Or by the curdling winds--like brazen wings | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Which clanged along the mountain's marble brow-- | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Warped into adamantine fretwork, hung | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And filled with frozen light the chasms below. | 11 | ···/˘··/˘·· |
| Vexed by the blast, the great pines groaned and swung | 10 | ·········· |
| Under their load of [snow]-- | 6 | ······ |
| Such as the eagle sees, when he dives down | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| From the gray deserts of wide air, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The shadow of that scene, field after field, | 10 | ·/········ |
| Purple and dim and wide... | 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.