The Charm
Son of Erebus and Night,Hie away; and aim thy flightWhere consort none other fowlThan the bat and sullen owl;Where upon the limber grassPoppy and mandragorasWith like simples not a fewHang for ever drops of dew.Where flows Lethe without coilSoftly like a stream of oil.Hie thee thither, gentle Sleep:With this Greek no longer keep.Thrice I charge thee by my wand;Thrice with moly from my handDo I touch Ulysses' eyes,And with the jaspis: Then arise,Sagest Greek....
Words in this poem
- erebus n.
- A place of nether darkness, being the gloomy space through which the souls passed to Hades. See Milton's
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- lethe n.
- A river of Hades whose waters when drunk caused forgetfulness of the past.
- moly n.
- A fabulous herb of occult power, having a black root and white blossoms, said by Homer to have been given by Hermes to Ulysses to counteract the spells of Circe.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Charm is in the public domain. This text is taken from Pastoral Poems by Nicholas Breton, Selected Poetry by George Wither, and Pastoral Poetry by William Browne (of Tavistock), Project Gutenberg ebook #22001; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Nicholas Breton, The Charm, in Pastoral Poems and Selected Poetry (1597–1604), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22001, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/breton-poems/the-charm.html, id L08870.
Form and metre
The Charm is 17 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 71% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 41% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 AABB--CCDDEE--FF- nightA · flightA · fowlB · owlB · grass · mandragoras · fewC · dewC · coilD · oilD · sleepE · keepE · wand · hand · eyesF · ariseF · greek
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Son of Erebus and Night, | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| Hie away; and aim thy flight | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Where consort none other fowl | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Than the bat and sullen owl; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Where upon the limber grass | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Poppy and mandragoras | 7 | /˘····· |
| With like simples not a few | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Hang for ever drops of dew. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Where flows Lethe without coil | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Softly like a stream of oil. | 7 | /˘····· |
| Hie thee thither, gentle Sleep: | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| With this Greek no longer keep. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Thrice I charge thee by my wand; | 7 | ······· |
| Thrice with moly from my hand | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Do I touch Ulysses' eyes, | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| And with the jaspis: Then arise, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Sagest Greek.... | 3 | ··· |
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.