Our Eastern Treasure
In cobwebb'd corners dusty and dim I hearA thin voice pipingly revived of late,Which saith our India is a cumbrous weight,An idle decoration, bought too dear.The wiser world contemns not gorgeous gear;Just pride is no mean factor in a State;The sense of greatness keeps a nation great;And mighty they who mighty can appear.It may be that if hands of greed could stealFrom England's grasp the envied orient prize,This tide of gold would flood her still as now:But were she the same England, made to feelA brightness gone from out those starry eyes,A splendour from that constellated brow?
Words in this poem
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
- cumbrous a.
- Rendering action or motion difficult or toilsome; serving to obstruct or hinder; burdensome; clogging.
- gorgeous a.
- Imposing through splendid or various colors; showy; fine; magnificent. [OF. gorgias beautiful, glorious, vain, luxurious; cf. OF. gorgias ruff, neck handkerchief, and F. gorge throat, and se pengorger to assume airs. Cf. Gorge, n.]
- greed n.
- An eager desire or longing; greediness; as, a greed of gain. [Akin to Goth. grdus hunger, Icel. graedhr. sq. root34. See Greedy.]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Our Eastern Treasure 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, Our Eastern Treasure, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/our-eastern-treasure.html, id L11296.
Form and metre
Our Eastern Treasure is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDECDE, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other Italian sonnets, 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 ABBAABBACDECDE hearA · lateB · weightB · dearA · gearA · stateB · greatB · appearA · stealC · prizeD · nowE · feelC · eyesD · browE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In cobwebb'd corners dusty and dim I hear | 11 | ···/˘/˘···· |
| A thin voice pipingly revived of late, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Which saith our India is a cumbrous weight, | 10 | ··//˘··/˘· |
| An idle decoration, bought too dear. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| The wiser world contemns not gorgeous gear; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Just pride is no mean factor in a State; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The sense of greatness keeps a nation great; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And mighty they who mighty can appear. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| It may be that if hands of greed could steal | 10 | ·········· |
| From England's grasp the envied orient prize, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘/˘·· |
| This tide of gold would flood her still as now: | 10 | ·········· |
| But were she the same England, made to feel | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A brightness gone from out those starry eyes, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| A splendour from that constellated brow? | 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.