Sonnet (“The pallid thunderstricken sigh for gain”)
The pallid thunderstricken sigh for gain,Down an ideal stream they ever float,And sailing on Pactolus in a boat,Drown soul and sense, while wistfully they strainWeak eyes upon the glistering sands that robeThe understream. The wise could he beholdCathedralled caverns of thick-ribbed goldAnd branching silvers of the central globe,Would marvel from so beautiful a sightHow scorn and ruin, pain and hate could flow:But Hatred in a gold cave sits below,Pleached with her hair, in mail of argent lightShot into gold, a snake her forehead clipsAnd skins the colour from her trembling lips.
Words in this poem
- argent n.
- Silver, or money. [F. argent, fr. L. argentum, silver; akin to Gr. rajata white, silver, raj to shine, Ir. arg white, milk, airgiod silver, money, and L. arguere to make clear. Se]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet (“The pallid thunderstricken sigh for gain”) is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Project Gutenberg ebook #8601; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Tennyson, Sonnet (“The pallid thunderstricken sigh for gain”), in The Early Poems (1830–1842), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8601, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-early-poems/sonnet-the-pallid-thunderstricken-sigh-for-gain.html, id L20773.
Form and metre
Sonnet (“The pallid thunderstricken sigh for gain”) is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBACDDCEFFEGG. 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.
- 1 ABBACDDCEFFEGG gainA · floatB · boatB · strainA · robeC · beholdD · goldD · globeC · sightE · flowF · belowF · lightE · clipsG · lipsG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The pallid thunderstricken sigh for gain, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Down an ideal stream they ever float, | 9 | ··˘/··/˘· |
| And sailing on Pactolus in a boat, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Drown soul and sense, while wistfully they strain | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Weak eyes upon the glistering sands that robe | 11 | ··········· |
| The understream. The wise could he behold | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Cathedralled caverns of thick-ribbed gold | 10 | ˘/˘˘/˘···· |
| And branching silvers of the central globe, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Would marvel from so beautiful a sight | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| How scorn and ruin, pain and hate could flow: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But Hatred in a gold cave sits below, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Pleached with her hair, in mail of argent light | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Shot into gold, a snake her forehead clips | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And skins the colour from her trembling lips. | 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.