Hymn Sung at a Sacred Concert at Columbia, S.C II

Henry Timrod (1828–1867) · 1860–1867

iambic tetrameter · octosyllabic couplets · 4 lines · from Poems

Thine ear, thou tender One, is caught,If we but bend the knee in thought;No choral song that shakes the skyFloats farther than the Christian's sigh.

Words in this poem

choral a.
Of or pertaining to a choir or chorus; singing, sung, or adapted to be sung, in chorus or harmony. Choral service, a service of song. [LL. choralis, fr. L. chorus. See Chorus.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Hymn Sung at a Sacred Concert at Columbia, S.C II is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Henry Timrod; with Memoir, Project Gutenberg ebook #845; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Henry Timrod, Hymn Sung at a Sacred Concert at Columbia, S.C II, in Poems (1860–1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #845, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/timrod-poems/hymn-sung-at-a-sacred-concert-at-columbia-s-c-ii.html, id L10502.

Form and metre

Hymn Sung at a Sacred Concert at Columbia, S.C II is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables.

See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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. 1 AABB caughtA · thoughtA · skyB · sighB
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.

LineSyl.Stress
Thine ear, thou tender One, is caught,8···/˘···
If we but bend the knee in thought;8········
No choral song that shakes the sky8·/˘·····
Floats farther than the Christian's sigh.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.

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