The Dead Oread
Her heart is still and leaps no moreWith holy passion when the breeze,Her whilom playmate, as before,Comes with the language of the bees,Sad songs her mountain cedars sing,And water-music murmuring.
Her calm white feet,--erst fleet and fastAs Daphne's when a god pursued,--No more will dance like sunlight pastThe gold-green vistas of the wood,Where every quailing floweretSmiled into life where they were set.
Hers were the limbs of living light,And breasts of snow; as virginalAs mountain drifts; and throat as whiteAs foam of mountain waterfall;And hyacinthine curls, that streamedLike crag-born mists, and gloomed and gleamed.
Her presence breathed such scents as hauntMoist, mountain dells and solitudes;Aromas wild as some wild plantThat fills with sweetness all the woods:And comradeships of stars and skiesShone in the azure of her eyes.
Her grave be by a mossy rockUpon the top of some wild hill,Removed, remote from men who mockThe myths and dreams of life they kill:Where all of beauty, naught of lustMay guard her solitary dust.
Words in this poem
- whilom adv.
- Formerly; once; of old; erewhile; at times. [AS. hwilum, properly, at times, dative pl. of hwil; akin to G. weiland formerly, OHG. hwilm, See While, n.]
- playmate n.
- A companion in diversions; a playfellow.
- floweret n.
- A small flower; a floret.
- virginal a.
- Of or pertaining to a virgin; becoming a virgin; maidenly. [L. virginalis: cf. F. virginal.]
- hyacinthine a.
- Belonging to the hyacinth; resemblingthe hyacinth; in color like the hyacinth.
- crag n.
- The neck or throat [A form of craw: cf. D. kraag neck, collar, G. kragen. See Craw.]
- lust v. i.
- To list; to like. [AS. lystan. See Lust, n., and cf. List to choose.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Dead Oread is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #7796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Madison Julius Cawein, The Dead Oread, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/the-dead-oread.html, id L10953.
Form and metre
The Dead Oread is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABABCC moreA · breezeB · beforeA · beesB · singC · murmuringC
- 2 A-A--- fastA · pursued · pastA · wood · floweret · set
- 3 ABABCC lightA · virginalB · whiteA · waterfallB · streamedC · gleamedC
- 4 ----AA haunt · solitudes · plant · woods · skiesA · eyesA
- 5 ABABCC rockA · hillB · mockA · killB · lustC · dustC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Her heart is still and leaps no more | 8 | ········ |
| With holy passion when the breeze, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Her whilom playmate, as before, | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| Comes with the language of the bees, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Sad songs her mountain cedars sing, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And water-music murmuring. | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Her calm white feet,--erst fleet and fast | 8 | ········ |
| As Daphne's when a god pursued,-- | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| No more will dance like sunlight past | 8 | ·····/·· |
| The gold-green vistas of the wood, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Where every quailing floweret | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Smiled into life where they were set. | 8 | ········ |
| Hers were the limbs of living light, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And breasts of snow; as virginal | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| As mountain drifts; and throat as white | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| As foam of mountain waterfall; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And hyacinthine curls, that streamed | 8 | ·······˘ |
| Like crag-born mists, and gloomed and gleamed. | 8 | ········ |
| Her presence breathed such scents as haunt | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Moist, mountain dells and solitudes; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Aromas wild as some wild plant | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| That fills with sweetness all the woods: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And comradeships of stars and skies | 9 | ········· |
| Shone in the azure of her eyes. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Her grave be by a mossy rock | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Upon the top of some wild hill, | 8 | ········ |
| Removed, remote from men who mock | 8 | ˘/˘/···· |
| The myths and dreams of life they kill: | 8 | ········ |
| Where all of beauty, naught of lust | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| May guard her solitary dust. | 8 | ···/˘·˘· |
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.