The Tortoise in Eternity
Within my house of patterned hornI sleep in such a bedAs men may keep before they're bornAnd after they are dead.
Sticks and stones may break their bones,And words may make them bleed;There is not one of them who ownsAn armor to his need.
Tougher than hide or lozenged bark,Snow-storm and thunder proof,And quick with sun, and thick with dark,Is this my darling roof.
Men's troubled dreams of death and birthPulse mother-o'-pearl to black;I bear the rainbow bubble EarthSquare on my scornful back.
Words in this poem
- lozenged a.
- Having the form of a lozenge or rhomb.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Tortoise in Eternity is in the public domain. This text is taken from Nets to Catch the Wind, Project Gutenberg ebook #6682; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Elinor Wylie, The Tortoise in Eternity, in Nets to Catch the Wind (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6682, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wylie-nets/the-tortoise-in-eternity.html, id L12776.
Form and metre
The Tortoise in Eternity is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB hornA · bedB · bornA · deadB
- 2 ABAB bonesA · bleedB · ownsA · needB
- 3 ABAB barkA · proofB · darkA · roofB
- 4 ABAB birthA · blackB · earthA · backB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Within my house of patterned horn | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I sleep in such a bed | 6 | ······ |
| As men may keep before they're born | 8 | ········ |
| And after they are dead. | 6 | ······ |
| Sticks and stones may break their bones, | 7 | ······· |
| And words may make them bleed; | 6 | ······ |
| There is not one of them who owns | 8 | ········ |
| An armor to his need. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Tougher than hide or lozenged bark, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Snow-storm and thunder proof, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And quick with sun, and thick with dark, | 8 | ········ |
| Is this my darling roof. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Men's troubled dreams of death and birth | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Pulse mother-o'-pearl to black; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| I bear the rainbow bubble Earth | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| Square on my scornful back. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.