Geotheos
As sweet as the look of a loverSaluting the eyes of a maid,That blossom to blue as the maidIs ablush to the glances above her,The sunshine is gilding the gladeAnd lifting the lark out of shade.
Sing therefore high praises, and thereforeSing songs that are ancient as gold,Of Earth in her garments of gold;Nor ask of their meaning, nor whereforeThey charm as of yore, for behold!The Earth is as fair as of old.
Sing songs of the pride of the mountains,And songs of the strength of the seas,And the fountains that fall to the seasFrom the hands of the hills, and the fountainsThat shine in the temples of trees,In valleys of roses and bees.
Sing songs that are dreamy and tender,Of slender Arabian palms,And shadows that circle the palms,Where caravans, veiled from the splendor,Are kneeling in blossoms and balms,In islands of infinite calms.
Barbaric, O Man, was thy runingWhen mountains were stained as with wineBy the dawning of Time, and as wineWere the seas, yet its echoes are crooning,Achant in the gusty pineAnd the pulse of the poet's line.
Words in this poem
- ablush adv.
- Blushing; ruddy. [Pref. a- + blush.]
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- glade n.
- An open passage through a wood; a grassy open or cleared space in a forest. [Prob. of Scand. origin, and akin to glad, a.; cf. also W. golead, goleuad, a lighting, illumination, fr. goleu light, clear, bright, goleu fwlch glade, lit., a ]
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
- veiled a.
- Covered by, or as by, a veil; hidden.
- barbaric a.
- Of, or from, barbarian nations; foreign; -- often with reference to barbarous nations of east. [L. barbaricus foreign, barbaric, Gr. .]
- gusty a.
- Subject to, or characterized by, gusts or squalls; windy; stormy; tempestuous.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Geotheos is in the public domain. This text is taken from Shapes of Clay (1903), Project Gutenberg ebook #12658; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ambrose Bierce, Geotheos, in Shapes of Clay (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12658, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bierce-shapes-of-clay/geotheos.html, id L27977.
Form and metre
Geotheos is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBABB. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in anapaestic 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.
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 ABBABB loverA · maidB · maidB · herA · gladeB · shadeB
- 2 ABBABB thereforeA · goldB · goldB · whereforeA · beholdB · oldB
- 3 ABBABB mountainsA · seasB · seasB · fountainsA · treesB · beesB
- 4 ABBABB tenderA · palmsB · palmsB · splendorA · balmsB · calmsB
- 5 ABBABB runingA · wineB · wineB · crooningA · pineB · lineB
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| As sweet as the look of a lover | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Saluting the eyes of a maid, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| That blossom to blue as the maid | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Is ablush to the glances above her, | 10 | ·˘/··/˘··· |
| The sunshine is gilding the glade | 8 | ·/··/˘·· |
| And lifting the lark out of shade. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Sing therefore high praises, and therefore | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Sing songs that are ancient as gold, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Of Earth in her garments of gold; | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Nor ask of their meaning, nor wherefore | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| They charm as of yore, for behold! | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The Earth is as fair as of old. | 8 | ········ |
| Sing songs of the pride of the mountains, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And songs of the strength of the seas, | 8 | ········ |
| And the fountains that fall to the seas | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| From the hands of the hills, and the fountains | 10 | ········/˘ |
| That shine in the temples of trees, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| In valleys of roses and bees. | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| Sing songs that are dreamy and tender, | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| Of slender Arabian palms, | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘˘· |
| And shadows that circle the palms, | 8 | ·/··/˘·· |
| Where caravans, veiled from the splendor, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Are kneeling in blossoms and balms, | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| In islands of infinite calms. | 8 | ·/˘·/˘˘· |
| Barbaric, O Man, was thy runing | 9 | ˘/˘······ |
| When mountains were stained as with wine | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| By the dawning of Time, and as wine | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Were the seas, yet its echoes are crooning, | 10 | ·····/˘·/˘ |
| Achant in the gusty pine | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And the pulse of the poet's line. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
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