History
Here, peradventure, in this mirror glassed,Who gazes long and well at times beholdsSome sunken feature of the mummied Past,But oftener only the embroidered foldsAnd soiled magnificence of her rent robeWhose tattered skirts are ruined dynastiesThat sweep the dust of æons in our eyesAnd with their trailing pride cumber the globe.--For lo! the high, imperial Past is dead:The air is full of its dissolvèd bones;Invincible armies long since vanquishèd,Kings that remember not their awful thrones,Powerless potentates and foolish sages,Impede the slow steps of the pompous ages.
Words in this poem
- magnificence n.
- The act of doing what magnificent; the state or quality of being magnificent. Acts xix. 27. [F. magnificence, L. magnificentia. See Magnific.]
- cumber n.
- Trouble; embarrassment; distress. [Cf. encombre hindrance, impediment. See Cuber,v.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
History 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, History, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/history.html, id L11272.
Form and metre
History is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% 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 ABABCDDC-E-EFF glassedA · beholdsB · pastA · foldsB · robeC · dynastiesD · eyesD · globeC · dead · bonesE · vanquishèd · thronesE · sagesF · agesF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Here, peradventure, in this mirror glassed, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Who gazes long and well at times beholds | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Some sunken feature of the mummied Past, | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| But oftener only the embroidered folds | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| And soiled magnificence of her rent robe | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| Whose tattered skirts are ruined dynasties | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| That sweep the dust of æons in our eyes | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And with their trailing pride cumber the globe.-- | 10 | ···/˘·/˘·· |
| For lo! the high, imperial Past is dead: | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| The air is full of its dissolvèd bones; | 9 | ········· |
| Invincible armies long since vanquishèd, | 10 | ˘/˘˘/˘···· |
| Kings that remember not their awful thrones, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Powerless potentates and foolish sages, | 11 | /˘˘/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Impede the slow steps of the pompous ages. | 11 | ˘/·····/˘/˘ |
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.