Chartres

Edith Wharton 1862 (New York City) – 1937 (Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt)



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 illume
        The pale high-alter. 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.

II

The crimson panes like blood-drops stigmatise
        The western floor. The aisles are mute and cold.
A rigid fetich in her robe of gold,
        The Virgin of the Pillar, with blank eyes,
Enthroned beneath her votive canopies,
        Gathers a meagre remnant to her fold.
The rest is solitude; the church, grown old,
        Stands stark and grey beneath the burning skies.
Well-nigh again its mighty framework grows
        To be a part of nature's self, withdrawn
From hot humanity's impatient woes;
        The floor is ridged like some rude mountain lawn,
And in the east one giant window shows
        The roseate coldness of an Alp at dawn.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:01 min read
104

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBACDCDCD CEEDCEEDFGFGFG
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,296
Words 203
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 14, 14

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton (born Edith Newbold Jones) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper class New York "aristocracy" to realistically portray the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996. more…

All Edith Wharton poems | Edith Wharton Books

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