Peter Quince at the Clavier IV
Beauty is momentary in the mind--The fitful tracing of a portal;But in the flesh it is immortal.
The body dies; the body’s beauty lives.So evenings die, in their green going,A wave, interminably flowing.So gardens die, their meek breath scentingThe cowl of winter, done repenting.So maidens die, to the auroralCelebration of a maiden’s choral.
Susanna’s music touched the bawdy stringsOf those white elders; but, escaping,Left only Death’s ironic scraping.Now, in its immortality, it playsOn the clear viol of her memory,And makes a constant sacrament of praise.
Words in this poem
- fitful a.
- Full of fits; irregularly variable; impulsive and unstable. [From 7th Fit.]
- interminably adv.
- Without end or limit.
- auroral a.
- Belonging to, or resembling, the aurora (the dawn or the northern lights); rosy.
- choral a.
- Of or pertaining to a choir or chorus; singing, sung, or adapted to be sung, in chorus or harmony. Choral service, a service of song. [LL. choralis, fr. L. chorus. See Chorus.]
- bawdy a.
- Dirty; foul; -- said of clothes.
- ironic a.
- Ironical. Sir T. Herbert.
- sacrament n.
- The oath of allegiance taken by Roman soldiers; hence, a sacred ceremony used to impress an obligation; a solemn oath-taking; an oath. [L. sacramentum an oath, a sacred thing, a mystery, a sacrament, fr. sacrare to declare as sacred, sacer sacred: cf. F. sacrament. See Sacred.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Peter Quince at the Clavier IV is in the public domain. This text is taken from Harmonium, Project Gutenberg ebook #78743; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Wallace Stevens, Peter Quince at the Clavier IV, in Harmonium (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #78743, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stevens-harmonium/peter-quince-at-the-clavier-iv.html, id L01076.
Form and metre
Peter Quince at the Clavier IV is 16 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 62% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.4 syllables. 11 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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 mind · portalA · immortalA
- 2 -AABBCC lives · goingA · flowingA · scentingB · repentingB · auroralC · choralC
- 3 -AAB-B strings · escapingA · scrapingA · playsB · memory · praiseB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Beauty is momentary in the mind-- | 10 | /˘·/˘·˘··· |
| The fitful tracing of a portal; | 9 | ·/˘/˘··/˘ |
| But in the flesh it is immortal. | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| The body dies; the body’s beauty lives. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| So evenings die, in their green going, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| A wave, interminably flowing. | 9 | ···/˘˘˘/˘ |
| So gardens die, their meek breath scenting | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| The cowl of winter, done repenting. | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| So maidens die, to the auroral | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| Celebration of a maiden’s choral. | 10 | ·˘/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Susanna’s music touched the bawdy strings | 10 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Of those white elders; but, escaping, | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| Left only Death’s ironic scraping. | 9 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| Now, in its immortality, it plays | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| On the clear viol of her memory, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| And makes a constant sacrament of praise. | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
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