Having Climbed to the Topmost Peak of the Incense-Burner Mountain
Up and up, the Incense-burner Peak!In my heart is stored what my eyes and ears perceived.All the year--detained by official business;To-day at last I got a chance to go.Grasping the creepers, I clung to dangerous rocks;My hands and feet--weary with groping for hold.There came with me three or four friends,But two friends dared not go further.At last we reached the topmost crest of the Peak;My eyes were blinded, my soul rocked and reeled.The chasm beneath me--ten thousand feet;The ground I stood on, only a foot wide.If you have not exhausted the scope of seeing and hearing,How can you realize the wideness of the world?The waters of the River looked narrow as a ribbon,P’ēn Castle smaller than a man’s fist.How it clings, the dust of the world’s halter!It chokes my limbs: I cannot shake it away.Thinking of retirement, I heaved an envious sigh,Then, with lowered head, came back to the Ants’ Nest.
Words in this poem
- clung a.
- Wasted away; shrunken. [Prop. p. p. fr. OE. clingen to wither. See Cling, v. i.]
- realize v. t.
- To make real; to convert from the imaginary or fictitious into the actual; to bring into concrete existence; to accomplish; as, to realize a scheme or project. [Cf. F. réaliser.]
- wideness n.
- The quality or state of being wide; breadth; width; great extent from side to side; as, the wideness of a room.
- envious a.
- Malignant; mischievous; spiteful. [OF. envios, F. envieux, fr. L. invidiosus, fr. invidia envy. See Envy, and cf. Invidious.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Having Climbed to the Topmost Peak of the Incense-Burner Mountain is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, the Arthur Waley translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Various, Having Climbed to the Topmost Peak of the Incense-Burner Mountain, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/having-climbed-to-the-topmost-peak-of-the-incense-burner-mou.html, id L18846.
Form and metre
Having Climbed to the Topmost Peak of the Incense-Burner Mountain is 20 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 72%). 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.8 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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 A-------A----------- peakA · perceived · business · go · rocks · hold · friends · further · peakA · reeled · feet · wide · hearing · world · ribbon · fist · halter · away · sigh · nest
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Up and up, the Incense-burner Peak! | 9 | ····˘//˘· |
| In my heart is stored what my eyes and ears perceived. | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| All the year--detained by official business; | 11 | ···˘/·˘/˘/˘ |
| To-day at last I got a chance to go. | 10 | ·········· |
| Grasping the creepers, I clung to dangerous rocks; | 12 | /˘······/˘˘· |
| My hands and feet--weary with groping for hold. | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| There came with me three or four friends, | 8 | ········ |
| But two friends dared not go further. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| At last we reached the topmost crest of the Peak; | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| My eyes were blinded, my soul rocked and reeled. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The chasm beneath me--ten thousand feet; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The ground I stood on, only a foot wide. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| If you have not exhausted the scope of seeing and hearing, | 15 | ····˘/˘···/˘·/˘ |
| How can you realize the wideness of the world? | 11 | ···/··/˘··· |
| The waters of the River looked narrow as a ribbon, | 14 | ·/˘··/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| P’ēn Castle smaller than a man’s fist. | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| How it clings, the dust of the world’s halter! | 10 | ········/˘ |
| It chokes my limbs: I cannot shake it away. | 11 | ·····/˘··˘/ |
| Thinking of retirement, I heaved an envious sigh, | 14 | /˘·˘/˘˘···/˘˘· |
| Then, with lowered head, came back to the Ants’ Nest. | 11 | ··/˘······· |
Notes from the edition 1
Arthur Waley's notes to A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918; Project Gutenberg #42290).
- Line 19 I.e., retirement from office.
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