The Miserere
NOT of the earth that music! all things fade;Vanish the pictured walls! and, one by one,The starry candles silently expire!
And now, O Jesus! round that silent crossA moment's pause, a hush as of the grave.Now rises slow a silver mist of sound,And all the heavens break out in drops of grief;A rain of sobbing sweetness, swelling, dying,Voice into voice inweaving with sweet throbs,And fluttering pulses of impassioned moan,--Veiled voices, in whose wailing there is awe,And mysteries of love and agony,A yearning anguish of celestial souls,A shiver as of wings trembling the air,As if God's shining doves, his spotless birds,Wailed with a nightingale's heart-break of grief,In this their starless night, when for our sinsTheir sun, their life, their love, hangs darkly there,Like a slain lamb, bleeding his life away!
Words in this poem
- pictured a.
- Furnished with pictures; represented by a picture or pictures; as, a pictured scene.
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- sobbing n.
- A series of short, convulsive inspirations, the glottis being suddenly closed so that little or no air enters into the lungs.
- impassioned p. p.
- Actuated or characterized by passion or zeal; showing warmth of feeling; ardent; animated; excited; as, an impassioned orator or discourse.
- veiled a.
- Covered by, or as by, a veil; hidden.
- starless a.
- Being without stars; having no stars visible; as, a starless night.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Miserere is in the public domain. This text is taken from Religious Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #44778; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Miserere, in Religious Poems (1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #44778, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stowe-religious-poems/the-miserere.html, id L22731.
Form and metre
The Miserere is 19 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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.
- 2 ---A------B-A-B- cross · grave · sound · griefA · dying · throbs · moan · awe · agony · souls · airB · birds · griefA · sins · thereB · away
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 |
|---|---|---|
| NOT of the earth that music! all things fade; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Vanish the pictured walls! and, one by one, | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| The starry candles silently expire! | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| And now, O Jesus! round that silent cross | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| A moment's pause, a hush as of the grave. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Now rises slow a silver mist of sound, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And all the heavens break out in drops of grief; | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| A rain of sobbing sweetness, swelling, dying, | 11 | ···/˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Voice into voice inweaving with sweet throbs, | 10 | ·········· |
| And fluttering pulses of impassioned moan,-- | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Veiled voices, in whose wailing there is awe, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And mysteries of love and agony, | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘˘ |
| A yearning anguish of celestial souls, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| A shiver as of wings trembling the air, | 10 | ·/˘···/˘·· |
| As if God's shining doves, his spotless birds, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Wailed with a nightingale's heart-break of grief, | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| In this their starless night, when for our sins | 10 | ···/˘···/· |
| Their sun, their life, their love, hangs darkly there, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Like a slain lamb, bleeding his life away! | 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.