I cannot see the features right
I cannot see the features right,When on the gloom I strive to paintThe face I know; the hues are faintAnd mix with hollow masks of night:
Cloud-towers by ghostly masons wrought,A gulf that ever shuts and gapes,A hand that points, and palled shapesIn shadowy thoroughfares of thought;
And crowds that stream from yawning doors,And shoals of pucker’d faces drive;Dark bulks that tumble half alive,And lazy lengths on boundless shores:
Till all at once beyond the willI hear a wizard music roll,And thro’ a lattice on the soulLooks thy fair face and makes it still.
Words in this poem
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
I cannot see the features right 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, I cannot see the features right, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-68.html, id L18428.
Form and metre
I cannot see the features right is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 31% 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 rightA · paintB · faintB · nightA
- 2 ABBA wroughtA · gapesB · shapesB · thoughtA
- 3 ABBA doorsA · driveB · aliveB · shoresA
- 4 ABBA willA · rollB · soulB · stillA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I cannot see the features right, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| When on the gloom I strive to paint | 8 | ········ |
| The face I know; the hues are faint | 8 | ········ |
| And mix with hollow masks of night: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Cloud-towers by ghostly masons wrought, | 8 | ·/·/˘/˘· |
| A gulf that ever shuts and gapes, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A hand that points, and palled shapes | 8 | ······˘· |
| In shadowy thoroughfares of thought; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And crowds that stream from yawning doors, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And shoals of pucker’d faces drive; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Dark bulks that tumble half alive, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And lazy lengths on boundless shores: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Till all at once beyond the will | 8 | ········ |
| I hear a wizard music roll, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And thro’ a lattice on the soul | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Looks thy fair face and makes it still. | 8 | ········ |
On this poem
"I hear a wizard music roll, And thro' a lattice on the soul Looks thy fair face and makes it still."
Notes from the edition 5
Section introductions from Alfred Gatty, <i>A Key to Lord Tennyson's “In Memoriam”</i>, 4th ed. (George Bell & Sons, 1900; Project Gutenberg #36637). Line notes credited “[Tennyson]” are Tennyson's own notes; “[Hallam Tennyson]” marks a note that is wholly his son and editor's own explanatory bracket, not the poet's own words; “[Emily Tennyson]” marks the few notes signed by his wife. All three are from <i>The Works of Tennyson, Annotated by the Author</i>, ed. Hallam, Lord Tennyson, vol. 3 (Macmillan, 1908; Internet Archive worksoftennysona03tennuoft). Line notes credited “[Bradley]” are A. C. Bradley's, from <i>A Commentary on Tennyson's In Memoriam</i> (Macmillan, 1910; Internet Archive commentaryontenn00braduoft). All these number sections by the final, 131-section text, not the site's own 1850 numbering: from final XL to LVIII subtract one section number, from LX on subtract two, to reach the site's; the site prints the 129-section first edition of 1850 (see the work's own blurb), so two of the final text's numbered sections have no home here and are skipped.
- Stanza 1, line 1 Cf. Browne, Rel Med. n. 6: * Whom we truly love like our own selves, we forget their looks, nor can our memory retain the idea of their faces ' (G. A. C.). [Bradley]
- Stanza 1, line 2 See Introduction, p. 7. [Bradley]
- Stanza 1, line 4 "hollow': empty, void of substance: cf. III. n, 12. * Masks ': false appearances, as in XVIII. 10. Cf. ' Her college and her maidens, empty masks,' Princess^ HI. [Bradley]
- Stanza 2, line 4 Cf. TroXXAs 5' 68ote t\86vTa fpovrldos TrXdvois, Soph. O.T. 67 (see Mrs. Shelley's note to Prometheus Unbound}. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 1 'beyond the will': see 2. As the striving ceases and sleep comes on, there appear first the ' masks '; then, when sleep is complete, the image he couid not picture. Cf. IV. 2. [Bradley]
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