Grief II
She holds the world within her mighty hand,And lo! it is a toy for babes to toss,And all its shining imagery but dross,To those that in her awful presence stand;As sun-confronting eagles o'er the landThat lies below, they send their gaze acrossThe common intervals of gain and loss,And hope's infinitude without a strand.
But he who, on that lonely eminence,Watches too long the whirling of the spheresThrough dim eternities, descending thenceThe voices of his kind no longer hears,And, blinded by the spectacle immense,Journeys alone through all the after years.
Words in this poem
- imagery n.
- The work of one who makes images or visible representation of objects; imitation work; images in general, or in mass. [OE. imagerie, F. imagerie.]
- infinitude n.
- The quality or state of being infinite, or without limits; infiniteness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Grief II 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, Grief II, in Artemis to Actaeon, and Other Verse (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4549, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wharton-artemis/grief-ii.html, id L22230.
Form and metre
Grief II is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 ABBAABBA handA · tossB · drossB · standA · landA · acrossB · lossB · strandA
- 2 ABABAB eminenceA · spheresB · thenceA · hearsB · immenseA · yearsB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| She holds the world within her mighty hand, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And lo! it is a toy for babes to toss, | 10 | ·········· |
| And all its shining imagery but dross, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| To those that in her awful presence stand; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| As sun-confronting eagles o'er the land | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| That lies below, they send their gaze across | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The common intervals of gain and loss, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| And hope's infinitude without a strand. | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| But he who, on that lonely eminence, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Watches too long the whirling of the spheres | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Through dim eternities, descending thence | 10 | ··˘/˘˘˘/˘· |
| The voices of his kind no longer hears, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And, blinded by the spectacle immense, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| Journeys alone through all the after years. | 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.