Thyrsis
More sweet thy pipe's enchanting melodyThan streams that fall from broken rocks on high.Say, by the nymphs, that guard the sacred scene,Where lowly tamarisks shade these hillocks green,At noontide shall we lie?No; for o'erwearied with the forest chase,Pan, the great hunter god, sleeps in this place.Beneath the branching elm, while thy sad verse,O Thyrsis! Daphnis' sorrows shall rehearse,Fronting the wood-nymph's solitary seat,Whose fountains flash amid the dark retreat;Where the old statue leans, and brown oaks waveTheir ancient umbrage o'er the pastoral cave;There will we rest, and thou, as erst, prolongThe sweet enchantment of the Doric song!
Words in this poem
- noontide n.
- The time of noon; midday. [From noon + tide time; cf. AS. n the ninth hour.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- umbrage n.
- Shade; shadow; obscurity; hence, that which affords a shade, as a screen of trees or foliage. [F. ombrage shade, suspicion, umbrage, L. umbraticus belonging to shade, fr. umbra a shade. Cf. Umber, Umbratic.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Thyrsis is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. 1 With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by George Gilfillan, Project Gutenberg ebook #18915; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Lisle Bowles, Thyrsis, in The Poetical Works, Volume I (1789–1837), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18915, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bowles-sonnets/thyrsis.html, id L09961.
Form and metre
Thyrsis is 15 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.7 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 -ABBACCDDEEFFGG melody · highA · sceneB · greenB · lieA · chaseC · placeC · verseD · rehearseD · seatE · retreatE · waveF · caveF · prolongG · songG
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| More sweet thy pipe's enchanting melody | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Than streams that fall from broken rocks on high. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Say, by the nymphs, that guard the sacred scene, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Where lowly tamarisks shade these hillocks green, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| At noontide shall we lie? | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| No; for o'erwearied with the forest chase, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Pan, the great hunter god, sleeps in this place. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Beneath the branching elm, while thy sad verse, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| O Thyrsis! Daphnis' sorrows shall rehearse, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Fronting the wood-nymph's solitary seat, | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘· |
| Whose fountains flash amid the dark retreat; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/··˘/ |
| Where the old statue leans, and brown oaks wave | 10 | ···/······ |
| Their ancient umbrage o'er the pastoral cave; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| There will we rest, and thou, as erst, prolong | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The sweet enchantment of the Doric song! | 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.