Angels
Linger, rosy reflex, aQuenchless stain, on Viola!
Bear her down, and bearing, sing,Bear her down on spyless wing,Bear her down, and bearing, sing,With a sound of viola.
Wheeling angels, past espial,Danced her down with sound of viol;Wheeling angels, past espial,Descanting on “Viola.”
Baby smiled, mother wailed,Earthward while the sweetling sailed;Mother smiled, baby wailed,When to earth came Viola.
So soon have we taught you aWay to weep, poor Viola!
Smile, sweet baby, smile,For you will have weeping-while;Native in your Heaven is smile,—But your weeping, Viola?
Whence your smiles we know, but ah?Whence your weeping, Viola?—Our first gift to you is aGift of tears, my Viola!
Words in this poem
- quenchless a.
- Incapable of being quenched; inextinguishable; as, quenchless fire or fury.
- wheeling n.
- The act of conveying anything, or traveling, on wheels, or in a wheeled vehicle.
- espial n.
- The act of espying; notice; discovery. [OE. & Norm. F. espiaille. See Espy.]
- earthward adv.
- Toward the earth; -- opposed to heavenward or skyward.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Angels is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1469; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Francis Thompson, Angels, in Poems (1893) (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1469, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/thompson-poems/angels.html, id L01713.
Form and metre
Angels is 24 lines in 7 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 11 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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.
- 2 AAA- singA · wingA · singA · viola
- 3 A-A- espialA · viol · espialA · viola
- 4 AAA- wailedA · sailedA · wailedA · viola
- 6 AAA- smileA · whileA · smileA · viola
- 7 -A-A ah · violaA · a · violaA
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Linger, rosy reflex, a | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Quenchless stain, on Viola! | 7 | /˘··˘/˘ |
| Bear her down, and bearing, sing, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Bear her down on spyless wing, | 7 | ······· |
| Bear her down, and bearing, sing, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| With a sound of viola. | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Wheeling angels, past espial, | 8 | /˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Danced her down with sound of viol; | 9 | ·˘·····/˘ |
| Wheeling angels, past espial, | 8 | /˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Descanting on “Viola.” | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Baby smiled, mother wailed, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Earthward while the sweetling sailed; | 7 | ······· |
| Mother smiled, baby wailed, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| When to earth came Viola. | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| So soon have we taught you a | 7 | ······· |
| Way to weep, poor Viola! | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Smile, sweet baby, smile, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| For you will have weeping-while; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Native in your Heaven is smile,— | 8 | /˘··/˘·· |
| But your weeping, Viola? | 7 | ··/˘˘/˘ |
| Whence your smiles we know, but ah? | 7 | ······· |
| Whence your weeping, Viola?— | 7 | ··/˘˘/˘ |
| Our first gift to you is a | 8 | /˘······ |
| Gift of tears, my Viola! | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
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.