Sung by Guiderus and Arviragus Over Fidele, Supposed to Be Dead
To fair Fidele's grassy tombSoft maids and village hinds shall bringEach opening sweet of earliest bloom,And rifle all the breathing spring.
No wailing ghost shall dare appearTo vex with shrieks this quiet grove;But shepherd lads assemble here,And melting virgins own their love.
No wither'd witch shall here be seen;No goblins lead their nightly crew:The female fays shall haunt the green,And dress thy grave with pearly dew!
The redbreast oft, at evening hours,Shall kindly lend his little aid,With hoary moss, and gather'd flowers,To deck the ground where thou art laid.
When howling winds, and beating rain,In tempests shake the sylvan cell;Or 'midst the chase, on every plain,The tender thought on thee shall dwell;
Each lonely scene shall thee restore;For thee the tear be duly shed;Beloved till life can charm no more,And mourn'd till Pity's self be dead.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- nightly a.
- Of or pertaining to the night, or to every night; happening or done by night, or every night; as, nightly shades; he kept nightly vigils.
- hoary a.
- White or whitish."The hoary willows."
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sung by Guiderus and Arviragus Over Fidele, Supposed to Be Dead is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of William Collins; With a Memoir, Project Gutenberg ebook #29879; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Collins, Sung by Guiderus and Arviragus Over Fidele, Supposed to Be Dead, in Poetical Works (1746), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29879, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/collins-poems/sung-by-guiderus-and-arviragus-over-fidele-supposed-to-be-de.html, id L13360.
Form and metre
Sung by Guiderus and Arviragus Over Fidele, Supposed to Be Dead is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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 ABAB tombA · bringB · bloomA · springB
- 2 ABAB appearA · groveB · hereA · loveB
- 3 ABAB seenA · crewB · greenA · dewB
- 4 ABAB hoursA · aidB · flowersA · laidB
- 5 ABAB rainA · cellB · plainA · dwellB
- 6 ABAB restoreA · shedB · moreA · deadB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To fair Fidele's grassy tomb | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Soft maids and village hinds shall bring | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Each opening sweet of earliest bloom, | 10 | ·/˘˘··/˘˘· |
| And rifle all the breathing spring. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| No wailing ghost shall dare appear | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| To vex with shrieks this quiet grove; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But shepherd lads assemble here, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| And melting virgins own their love. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| No wither'd witch shall here be seen; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| No goblins lead their nightly crew: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The female fays shall haunt the green, | 8 | ·/······ |
| And dress thy grave with pearly dew! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The redbreast oft, at evening hours, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Shall kindly lend his little aid, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| With hoary moss, and gather'd flowers, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| To deck the ground where thou art laid. | 8 | ········ |
| When howling winds, and beating rain, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| In tempests shake the sylvan cell; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Or 'midst the chase, on every plain, | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| The tender thought on thee shall dwell; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Each lonely scene shall thee restore; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| For thee the tear be duly shed; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Beloved till life can charm no more, | 9 | ˘/˘······ |
| And mourn'd till Pity's self be dead. | 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.