Saul I
Thou whose spell can raise the dead,Bid the Prophet's form appear."Samuel, raise thy buried head!King, behold the phantom Seer!"Earth yawned; he stood the centre of a cloud:Light changed its hue, retiring from his shroud.lmDeath stood all glassy in his fixed eye;His hand was withered, and his veins were dry;His foot, in bony whiteness, glittered there,Shrunken and sinewless, and ghastly bare;From lips that moved not and unbreathing frame,Like caverned winds, the hollow accents came.Saul saw, and fell to earth, as falls the oak,At once, and blasted by the thunder-stroke.ln
Words in this poem
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
- sinewless a.
- Having no sinews; hence, having no strength or vigor.
- caverned a.
- Containing caverns.
- blasted a.
- Blighted; withered.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Saul I 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, Saul I, in The Giaour, and Other Poems (1816), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21811, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-works-3/saul-i.html, id L23950.
Form and metre
Saul I is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 ABAB--CCDDEE-- deadA · appearB · headA · seerB · cloud · shroud.lm · eyeC · dryC · thereD · bareD · frameE · cameE · oak · stroke.ln
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thou whose spell can raise the dead, | 7 | ······· |
| Bid the Prophet's form appear. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| "Samuel, raise thy buried head! | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| King, behold the phantom Seer!" | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Earth yawned; he stood the centre of a cloud: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Light changed its hue, retiring from his shroud.lm | 11 | ····˘/˘···· |
| Death stood all glassy in his fixed eye; | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| His hand was withered, and his veins were dry; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| His foot, in bony whiteness, glittered there, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Shrunken and sinewless, and ghastly bare; | 10 | /˘·/˘˘·/˘· |
| From lips that moved not and unbreathing frame, | 10 | ·········· |
| Like caverned winds, the hollow accents came. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Saul saw, and fell to earth, as falls the oak, | 10 | ·········· |
| At once, and blasted by the thunder-stroke.ln | 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.