Chartres I
IMMENSE, august, like some Titanic bloom,The mighty choir unfolds its lithic core,Petalled with panes of azure, gules and or,Splendidly lambent in the Gothic gloom,And stamened with keen flamelets that illumeThe pale high-altar. On the prayer-worn floor,By worshippers innumerous thronged of yore,A few brown crones, familiars of the tomb,The stranded driftwood of Faith's ebbing sea--For these alone the finials fret the skies,The topmost bosses shake their blossoms free,While from the triple portals, with grave eyes,Tranquil, and fixed upon eternity,The cloud of witnesses still testifies.
Words in this poem
- lithic a.
- Of or pertaining to stone; as, lithic architecture. [Gr. lithique.]
- gules n.
- The tincture red, indicated in seals and engraved figures of escutcheons by parallel vertical lines. Hence, used poetically for a red color or that which is red. [OE. goules, F. gueules, the same word as gueule throat, OF. gole, goule, L. gula. So named from the red color of the throat. See Gullet, and cf. Gula.]
- splendidly adv.
- In a splendid manner; magnificently.
- lambent a.
- Playing on the surface; touching lightly; gliding over. [L. lambens, -enlis, p. pr. of lambere to lick; akin to lap. See Lap to drink by licking.]
- stamened a.
- Furnished with stamens.
- illume v. t.
- To throw or spread light upon; to make light or bright; to illuminate; to illumine. [Cf. F. illuminer. See Illuminate.]
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
- driftwood n.
- Wood drifted or floated by water.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chartres I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Artemis to Actaeon, and Other Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #4549; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edith Wharton, Chartres I, in Artemis to Actaeon, and Other Verse (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4549, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wharton-artemis/chartres-i.html, id L22231.
Form and metre
Chartres I is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ABBAABBACDCD-D bloomA · coreB · orB · gloomA · illumeA · floorB · yoreB · tombA · seaC · skiesD · freeC · eyesD · eternity · testifiesD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| IMMENSE, august, like some Titanic bloom, | 10 | ˘//˘··˘/˘· |
| The mighty choir unfolds its lithic core, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/·/˘· |
| Petalled with panes of azure, gules and or, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Splendidly lambent in the Gothic gloom, | 10 | /˘˘/˘··/˘· |
| And stamened with keen flamelets that illume | 11 | ·/˘······˘/ |
| The pale high-altar. On the prayer-worn floor, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| By worshippers innumerous thronged of yore, | 10 | ·/˘˘/˘˘··· |
| A few brown crones, familiars of the tomb, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| The stranded driftwood of Faith's ebbing sea-- | 10 | ·/˘/···/˘· |
| For these alone the finials fret the skies, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| The topmost bosses shake their blossoms free, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| While from the triple portals, with grave eyes, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Tranquil, and fixed upon eternity, | 10 | /˘····˘/˘˘ |
| The cloud of witnesses still testifies. | 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.