Envoi
Beloved, when my heart's awake to GodAnd all the world becomes His testimony,In you I most do see, in your brave spirit,Erect and certain, flashing deeds of light,A pure jet from the fountain of all being,A scripture clearer than all else to read.
And when belief was dead and God a myth,And the world seemed a wandering mote of evil,Endurable only by its impermanence,And all the planets perishable urnsOf perished ashes, to you alone I clungAmid the unspeakable loneliness of the universe.
Words in this poem
- clearer n.
- One who, or that which, clears.
- mote n.
- A meeting of persons for discussion; as, a wardmote in the city of London. [See Moot, a meeting.]
- endurable a.
- Capable of being endured or borne; sufferable. [Cf. OF. endurable. See Endure.]
- impermanence n.
- Want of permanence.
- clung a.
- Wasted away; shrunken. [Prop. p. p. fr. OE. clingen to wither. See Cling, v. i.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- loneliness n.
- The condition of being lonely; solitude; seclusion.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Envoi is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems - First Series, Project Gutenberg ebook #37860; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Collings Squire, Envoi, in Poems: First Series (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37860, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/squire-poems/envoi.html, id L23201.
Form and metre
Envoi is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
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 --AA-- god · testimony · spiritA · lightA · being · read
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Beloved, when my heart's awake to God | 9 | ˘/···˘/·· |
| And all the world becomes His testimony, | 11 | ····˘/·/˘·˘ |
| In you I most do see, in your brave spirit, | 10 | ·········/ |
| Erect and certain, flashing deeds of light, | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘··· |
| A pure jet from the fountain of all being, | 10 | ·····/˘··/ |
| A scripture clearer than all else to read. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And when belief was dead and God a myth, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| And the world seemed a wandering mote of evil, | 10 | ·····/˘··/ |
| Endurable only by its impermanence, | 12 | ˘/˘˘/˘······ |
| And all the planets perishable urns | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Of perished ashes, to you alone I clung | 11 | ·/˘/˘··˘/·· |
| Amid the unspeakable loneliness of the universe. | 13 | ˘/·˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
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.