Beethoven
O Master, if immortals suffer aughtOf sadness like to ours, and in like sighsAnd with like overflow of darkened eyesDisburden them, I know not; but methought,What time to day mine ear the utterance caughtWhereby in manifold melodious wiseThy heart's unrestful infelicitiesRose like a sea with easeless winds distraught,That thine seemed angel's grieving, as of oneStrayed somewhere out of heaven, and utteringLone moan and alien wail: because he hathFailed to remember the remounting path,And singing, weeping, can but weep and singEver, through vasts forgotten of the sun.
Words in this poem
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- easeless a.
- Without ease. Donne.
- distraught p. p.
- Torn asunder; separated. [OE. distract, distrauht. See Distract, a.]
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Beethoven 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, Beethoven, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/beethoven.html, id L11373.
Form and metre
Beethoven is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 71% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAAB-ACDEEDC aughtA · sighsB · eyesB · methoughtA · caughtA · wiseB · infelicities · distraughtA · oneC · utteringD · hathE · pathE · singD · sunC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O Master, if immortals suffer aught | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| Of sadness like to ours, and in like sighs | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| And with like overflow of darkened eyes | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Disburden them, I know not; but methought, | 10 | ˘/˘·····˘/ |
| What time to day mine ear the utterance caught | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Whereby in manifold melodious wise | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Thy heart's unrestful infelicities | 9 | ········· |
| Rose like a sea with easeless winds distraught, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| That thine seemed angel's grieving, as of one | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Strayed somewhere out of heaven, and uttering | 11 | ·/···/˘·/˘˘ |
| Lone moan and alien wail: because he hath | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Failed to remember the remounting path, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| And singing, weeping, can but weep and sing | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Ever, through vasts forgotten of the sun. | 10 | /˘··˘/˘··· |
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.