Beauty's Metempsychosis
That beauty such as thineCan die indeed,Were ordinance too wantonly malign:No wit may reconcile so cold a creedWith beauty such as thine.
From wave and star and flowerSome effluence rareWas lent thee, a divine but transient dower:Thou yield'st it back from eyes and lips and hairTo wave and star and flower.
Shouldst thou to-morrow die,Thou still shalt beFound in the rose and met in all the sky:And from the ocean's heart shalt sing to me,Shouldst thou to-morrow die.
Words in this poem
- ordinance n.
- Orderly arrangement; preparation; provision. [OE. ordenance, OF. ordenance, F. ordonnance. See Ordain, and cf. Ordnance, Ordonnance.]
- wantonly adv.
- In a wanton manner; without regularity or restraint; loosely; sportively; gayly; playfully; recklessly; lasciviously.
- effluence n.
- A flowing out, or emanation. [Cf. F. effluence.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Beauty's Metempsychosis is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of William Watson, Project Gutenberg ebook #13179; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Watson, Beauty's Metempsychosis, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/beauty-s-metempsychosis.html, id L11340.
Form and metre
Beauty's Metempsychosis is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABA, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 40% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABABA thineA · indeedB · malignA · creedB · thineA
- 2 AB-BA flowerA · rareB · dower · hairB · flowerA
- 3 ABABA dieA · beB · skyA · meB · dieA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| That beauty such as thine | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Can die indeed, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Were ordinance too wantonly malign: | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘˘˘/ |
| No wit may reconcile so cold a creed | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| With beauty such as thine. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| From wave and star and flower | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Some effluence rare | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Was lent thee, a divine but transient dower: | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| Thou yield'st it back from eyes and lips and hair | 10 | ·········· |
| To wave and star and flower. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Shouldst thou to-morrow die, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Thou still shalt be | 4 | ···· |
| Found in the rose and met in all the sky: | 10 | ·········· |
| And from the ocean's heart shalt sing to me, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Shouldst thou to-morrow die. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.