Written at Athens, January 16, 1810
The spell is broke, the charm is flown!Thus is it with Life's fitful fever:We madly smile when we should groan;Delirium is our best deceiver.Each lucid interval of thoughtRecalls the woes of Nature's charter;And He that acts as wise men ought,But lives--as Saints have died--a martyr.
Words in this poem
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- fitful a.
- Full of fits; irregularly variable; impulsive and unstable. [From 7th Fit.]
- madly adv.
- In a mad manner; without reason or understanding; wildly. [From Mad, a.]
- ought p. p.
- Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. ahte. sq. root110. See Owe.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Written at Athens, January 16, 1810 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, Written at Athens, January 16, 1810, in The Giaour, and Other Poems (1816), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21811, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-works-3/written-at-athens-january-16-1810.html, id L23830.
Form and metre
Written at Athens, January 16, 1810 is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in iambic 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 ABABCDCD flownA · feverB · groanA · deceiverB · thoughtC · charterD · oughtC · martyrD
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The spell is broke, the charm is flown! | 8 | ········ |
| Thus is it with Life's fitful fever: | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| We madly smile when we should groan; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Delirium is our best deceiver. | 9 | ˘/˘·/·˘/˘ |
| Each lucid interval of thought | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| Recalls the woes of Nature's charter; | 9 | ˘/···/˘/˘ |
| And He that acts as wise men ought, | 8 | ········ |
| But lives--as Saints have died--a martyr. | 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.