Herod's Lament for Mariamne
Oh, Mariamne! now for theeThe heart for which thou bled'st is bleeding;Revenge is lost in AgonymaAnd wild Remorse to rage succeeding.mbOh, Mariamne! where art thou?Thou canst not hear my bitter pleading:mcAh! could'st thou--thou would'st pardon now,Though Heaven were to my prayer unheeding.
And is she dead?--and did they dareObey my Frenzy's jealous raving?mdMy Wrath but doomed my own despair:The sword that smote her 's o'er me waving.--But thou art cold, my murdered Love!And this dark heart is vainly cravingmeFor he who soars alone above,And leaves my soul unworthy saving.
She's gone, who shared my diadem;She sunk, with her my joys entombing;I swept that flower from Judah's stem,Whose leaves for me alone were blooming;And mine's the guilt, and mine the hell,This bosom's desolation dooming;And I have earned those tortures well,mfWhich unconsumed are still consuming!
Words in this poem
- desolation n.
- The act of desolating or laying waste; destruction of inhabitants; depopulation. [F. désolation, L. desolatio.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Herod's Lament for Mariamne is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 3, Project Gutenberg ebook #21811; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lord Byron, Herod's Lament for Mariamne, in The Giaour, and Other Poems (1816), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21811, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-works-3/herod-s-lament-for-mariamne.html, id L23960.
Form and metre
Herod's Lament for Mariamne is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See 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 -A--B-BA thee · bleedingA · agonyma · succeeding.mb · thouB · pleading:mc · nowB · unheedingA
- 2 A-ABC-CB dareA · raving?md · despairA · wavingB · loveC · cravingme · aboveC · savingB
- 3 ABAB-B-B diademA · entombingB · stemA · bloomingB · hell · doomingB · well,mf · consumingB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, Mariamne! now for thee | 6 | ······ |
| The heart for which thou bled'st is bleeding; | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Revenge is lost in Agonyma | 9 | ˘/······· |
| And wild Remorse to rage succeeding.mb | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘· |
| Oh, Mariamne! where art thou? | 6 | ······ |
| Thou canst not hear my bitter pleading:mc | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Ah! could'st thou--thou would'st pardon now, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Though Heaven were to my prayer unheeding. | 9 | ·/······· |
| And is she dead?--and did they dare | 8 | ········ |
| Obey my Frenzy's jealous raving?md | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘/˘· |
| My Wrath but doomed my own despair: | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The sword that smote her 's o'er me waving.-- | 10 | ········/˘ |
| But thou art cold, my murdered Love! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And this dark heart is vainly cravingme | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| For he who soars alone above, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And leaves my soul unworthy saving. | 9 | ····˘/˘/˘ |
| She's gone, who shared my diadem; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| She sunk, with her my joys entombing; | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| I swept that flower from Judah's stem, | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| Whose leaves for me alone were blooming; | 9 | ····˘/·/˘ |
| And mine's the guilt, and mine the hell, | 8 | ········ |
| This bosom's desolation dooming; | 9 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| And I have earned those tortures well,mf | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Which unconsumed are still consuming! | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
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.