Empedocles
Hark! what sound was thatRose from below? If it were possible,And we were not so far from human haunt,I should have said that some one touched a harp.Hark! there again!
About this text
Empedocles is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #54985; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Matthew Arnold, Empedocles, in Poems (1849–1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #54985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/arnold-poems/empedocles.html, id L07036.
Form and metre
Empedocles is 5 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Hark! what sound was that | 5 | ····· |
| Rose from below? If it were possible, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And we were not so far from human haunt, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I should have said that some one touched a harp. | 10 | ·········· |
| Hark! there again! | 4 | ··˘/ |
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.