The Chorus
Nor was the love untrueWhich the Dawn-Goddess boreTo that fair youth she erst,Leaving the salt sea-beds,And coming flushed over the stormy frithOf loud Euripus, saw,--Saw and snatched, wild with love,From the pine-dotted spursOf Parnes, where thy waves,Asopus! gleam rock-hemmed,--The Hunter of the Tanagræan Field.
But him, in his sweet prime,By severance immature,By Artemis’ soft shafts,She, though a goddess born,Saw in the rocky isle of Delos die.Such end o’ertook that love.For she desired to makeImmortal mortal man,And blend his happy life,Far from the gods, with hers;To him postponing an eternal law.
Words in this poem
- frith n.
- A forest; a woody place. Drayton. [OE. frith peace, protection, land inclosed for hunting, park, forest, AS. fri peace; akin to freno peace, protection, asylum, G. friede peace, Icel. fri, and fr]
- euripus n.
- A strait; a narrow tract of water, where the tide, or a current, flows and reflows with violence, as the ancient fright of this name between Eubæa and Bæotia. Hence, a flux and reflux. Burke.
- severance n.
- The act of severing, or the state of being severed; partition; separation. Milman.
- isle v. t.
- To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Chorus 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, The Chorus, in Poems (1849–1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #54985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/arnold-poems/the-chorus-2.html, id L07004.
Form and metre
The Chorus is 22 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 23% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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. Read against iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Nor was the love untrue | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Which the Dawn-Goddess bore | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To that fair youth she erst, | 6 | ······ |
| Leaving the salt sea-beds, | 6 | /˘···· |
| And coming flushed over the stormy frith | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Of loud Euripus, saw,-- | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Saw and snatched, wild with love, | 7 | ···˘··· |
| From the pine-dotted spurs | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Of Parnes, where thy waves, | 5 | ····· |
| Asopus! gleam rock-hemmed,-- | 7 | ······˘ |
| The Hunter of the Tanagræan Field. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| But him, in his sweet prime, | 6 | ······ |
| By severance immature, | 7 | ·/˘˘·˘/ |
| By Artemis’ soft shafts, | 6 | ······ |
| She, though a goddess born, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Saw in the rocky isle of Delos die. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Such end o’ertook that love. | 6 | ······ |
| For she desired to make | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| Immortal mortal man, | 6 | ˘/˘/˘· |
| And blend his happy life, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Far from the gods, with hers; | 6 | ······ |
| To him postponing an eternal law. | 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.