The Chorus
Nor, though enthroned too highTo fear assault of envious gods,His beloved Argive seer would Zeus retainFrom his appointed end
In this our Thebes; but whenHis flying steeds came nearTo cross the steep Ismenian glen,The broad earth opened, and whelmed them and him,And through the void air sangAt large his enemy’s spear.
And fain would Zeus have saved his tired son,Beholding him where the Two Pillars standO’er the sun-reddened western straits,Or at his work in that dim lower world.Fain would he have recalledThe fraudulent oath which boundTo a much feebler wight the heroic man.
But he preferred fate to his strong desire.Nor did there need less than the burning pileUnder the towering Trachis crags,And the Spercheios vale, shaken with groans,And the roused Maliac gulf,And scared Œtæan snows,To achieve his son’s deliverance, O my child!
Words in this poem
- envious a.
- Malignant; mischievous; spiteful. [OF. envios, F. envieux, fr. L. invidiosus, fr. invidia envy. See Envy, and cf. Invidious.]
- argive a.
- Of or performance to Argos, the capital of Argolis in Greece. [L. Argivus, fr. Argos, Argi.]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- beholding a.
- Obliged; beholden.
- wight n.
- A whit; a bit; a jot. [OE. wight, wiht, a wight, a whit, AS. wiht, wuht, a creature, a thing; skin to D. wicht a child, OS. & OHG. wiht a creature, thing, G. wicht a creature, Icel. v]
- towering a.
- Very high; elevated; rising aloft; as, a towering height.
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
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-3.html, id L07006.
Form and metre
The Chorus is 24 lines in 4 stanzas. 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 42% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
- 2 ABA--B whenA · nearB · glenA · him · sang · spearB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Nor, though enthroned too high | 7 | ····˘·· |
| To fear assault of envious gods, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| His beloved Argive seer would Zeus retain | 10 | ·˘//˘···˘/ |
| From his appointed end | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| In this our Thebes; but when | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| His flying steeds came near | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| To cross the steep Ismenian glen, | 8 | ········ |
| The broad earth opened, and whelmed them and him, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And through the void air sang | 6 | ······ |
| At large his enemy’s spear. | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| And fain would Zeus have saved his tired son, | 9 | ·······/· |
| Beholding him where the Two Pillars stand | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| O’er the sun-reddened western straits, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Or at his work in that dim lower world. | 9 | ·······/· |
| Fain would he have recalled | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| The fraudulent oath which bound | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| To a much feebler wight the heroic man. | 11 | ·······˘/˘· |
| But he preferred fate to his strong desire. | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Nor did there need less than the burning pile | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Under the towering Trachis crags, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And the Spercheios vale, shaken with groans, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| And the roused Maliac gulf, | 7 | ···˘··· |
| And scared Œtæan snows, | 4 | ···· |
| To achieve his son’s deliverance, O my child! | 11 | ·˘/··˘/˘··· |
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.