Urania speaks with darken’d brow
Urania speaks with darken’d brow:‘Thou pratest here where thou art least;This faith has many a purer priest,And many an abler voice than thou:
Go down beside thy native rill,On thy Parnassus set thy feet,And hear thy laurel whisper sweetAbout the ledges of the hill.’
And my Melpomene replies,A touch of shame upon her cheek:‘I am not worthy but to speakOf thy prevailing mysteries;
For I am but an earthly Muse,And owning but a little artTo lull with song an aching heart,And render human love his dues;
But brooding on the dear one dead,And all he said of things divine,(And dear as sacramental wineTo dying lips is all he said),
I murmur’d, as I came along,Of comfort clasp’d in truth reveal’d;And loiter’d in the master’s field,And darken’d sanctities with song.’
Words in this poem
- urania n.
- One of the nine Muses, daughter of Zeus by Mnemosyne, and patron of astronomy.
- rill n.
- A very small brook; a streamlet. [Cf. LG. rille a small channel or brook, a furrow, a chamfer, OE. rigol a small brook, F. rigole a trench or furrow for water, W. rhill a row, rhigol a little di]
- parnassus n.
- A mountain in Greece, sacred to Apollo and the Muses, and famous for a temple of Apollo and for the Castalian spring. Grass of Parnassus. (Bot.) See under Grass, and Parnassia.
- melpomene n.
- The Muse of tragedy.
- lull v. t.
- To cause to rest by soothing influences; to compose; to calm; to soothe; to quiet. [Akin to OD. lullen to sing to sleep, G. lullen, Dan. lulle, Sw. lulla; all of imitative origin. Cf. Loll, Lollard.]
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Urania speaks with darken’d brow is in the public domain. This text is taken from In memoriam, Project Gutenberg ebook #70950; 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, Urania speaks with darken’d brow, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-37.html, id L18397.
Form and metre
Urania speaks with darken’d brow is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABBA browA · leastB · priestB · thouA
- 2 ABBA rillA · feetB · sweetB · hillA
- 3 ABBA repliesA · cheekB · speakB · mysteriesA
- 4 ABBA museA · artB · heartB · duesA
- 5 ABBA deadA · divineB · wineB · saidA
- 6 ABBA alongA · reveal'dB · fieldB · songA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Urania speaks with darken’d brow: | 9 | ˘/˘˘··/˘· |
| ‘Thou pratest here where thou art least; | 8 | ········ |
| This faith has many a purer priest, | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| And many an abler voice than thou: | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| Go down beside thy native rill, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| On thy Parnassus set thy feet, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And hear thy laurel whisper sweet | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| About the ledges of the hill.’ | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And my Melpomene replies, | 8 | ··˘/˘˘˘/ |
| A touch of shame upon her cheek: | 8 | ········ |
| ‘I am not worthy but to speak | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of thy prevailing mysteries; | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘˘ |
| For I am but an earthly Muse, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And owning but a little art | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To lull with song an aching heart, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And render human love his dues; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| But brooding on the dear one dead, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And all he said of things divine, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| (And dear as sacramental wine | 8 | ···/˘˘˘· |
| To dying lips is all he said), | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| I murmur’d, as I came along, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Of comfort clasp’d in truth reveal’d; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| And loiter’d in the master’s field, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And darken’d sanctities with song.’ | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
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.