The Rapture
Sweet Infancy!O fire of heaven! O sacred Light!How fair and bright!How great am I,Whom all the world doth magnify!
O Heavenly joy!O great and sacred blessednessWhich I possess!So great a joyWho did into my arms convey!
From God aboveBeing sent, the Heavens me enflame:To praise his NameThe stars do move!The burning sun doth shew His love.
O how divineAm I! To all this sacred wealth,This life and health,Who raised? Who mineDid make the same? What hand divine?
Words in this poem
- blessedness n.
- The state of being blessed; happiness; felicity; bliss; heavenly joys; the favor of God.
- shew n.
- Show. [Obs. except in shewbread.]
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Rapture is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Traherne, 1636?-1674, from the original manuscripts, Project Gutenberg ebook #61586; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Traherne, The Rapture, in The Salutation, and Other Poems (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #61586, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/traherne-poems/the-rapture.html, id L13300.
Form and metre
The Rapture is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBAA, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 -AABB infancy · lightA · brightA · iB · magnifyB
- 2 ABBA- joyA · blessednessB · possessB · joyA · convey
- 3 ABBAA aboveA · enflameB · nameB · moveA · loveA
- 4 ABBAA divineA · wealthB · healthB · mineA · divineA
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet Infancy! | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| O fire of heaven! O sacred Light! | 8 | ·/·/·/˘· |
| How fair and bright! | 4 | ···· |
| How great am I, | 4 | ···· |
| Whom all the world doth magnify! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| O Heavenly joy! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| O great and sacred blessedness | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Which I possess! | 4 | ··˘/ |
| So great a joy | 4 | ···· |
| Who did into my arms convey! | 8 | ······˘/ |
| From God above | 4 | ···· |
| Being sent, the Heavens me enflame: | 8 | /··/˘··· |
| To praise his Name | 4 | ···· |
| The stars do move! | 4 | ···· |
| The burning sun doth shew His love. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| O how divine | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Am I! To all this sacred wealth, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| This life and health, | 4 | ···· |
| Who raised? Who mine | 4 | ···· |
| Did make the same? What hand divine? | 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.