The Secret
WHEN winds are raging o'er the upper ocean,And billows wild contend with angry roar,'Tis said, far down beneath the wild commotion,That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore.
Far, far beneath, the noise of tempest dieth,And silver waves chime ever peacefully;And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er he flieth,Disturbs the sabbath of that deeper sea.
So to the soul that knows thy love, O Purest,There is a temple peaceful evermore!And all the babble of life's angry voicesDie in hushed stillness at its sacred door.
Far, far away the noise of passion dieth,And loving thoughts rise ever peacefully;And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er he fliethDisturbs that deeper rest, O Lord, in thee.
O rest of rests! O peace serene, eternal!Thou ever livest and thou changest never;And in the secret of thy presence dwellethFulness of joy, forever and forever.
Words in this poem
- angry a.
- Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [See Anger.]
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
- chime n.
- The harmonious sound of bells, or of musical instruments. [OE. chimbe, prop., cymbal, OF. cymbe, cymble, in a dialectic form, chymble, F. cymbale, L. cymbalum, fr. Gr. Cymbal.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Secret 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 Secret, in Religious Poems (1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #44778, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stowe-religious-poems/the-secret.html, id L22712.
Form and metre
The Secret is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 ABAB oceanA · roarB · commotionA · evermoreB
- 2 A-A- diethA · peacefully · fliethA · sea
- 3 -A-A purest · evermoreA · voices · doorA
- 4 A-A- diethA · peacefully · fliethA · thee
- 5 -A-A eternal · neverA · dwelleth · foreverA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| WHEN winds are raging o'er the upper ocean, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| And billows wild contend with angry roar, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| 'Tis said, far down beneath the wild commotion, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore. | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| Far, far beneath, the noise of tempest dieth, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And silver waves chime ever peacefully; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er he flieth, | 9 | ········· |
| Disturbs the sabbath of that deeper sea. | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| So to the soul that knows thy love, O Purest, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| There is a temple peaceful evermore! | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| And all the babble of life's angry voices | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Die in hushed stillness at its sacred door. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Far, far away the noise of passion dieth, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| And loving thoughts rise ever peacefully; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er he flieth | 9 | ········· |
| Disturbs that deeper rest, O Lord, in thee. | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| O rest of rests! O peace serene, eternal! | 11 | ······˘/˘/˘ |
| Thou ever livest and thou changest never; | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| And in the secret of thy presence dwelleth | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Fulness of joy, forever and forever. | 11 | /˘··˘/˘·˘/˘ |
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.