A Memory of Ellen Terry’s Beatrice
A wind of spring that whirls the feignéd snowsOf blossom-petals in the face, and flees:Elusive, made of mirthful mockeries,Yet tender with the prescience of the rose;A strain desired, that through the memory goes,Too subtle-slender for the voice to seize;A flame dissembled, only lit to tease,Whose touch were half a kiss, if one but knows.
She shows by Leonato’s dove-like daughterA falcon, by a prince to be possessed,Gay-graced with bells that ever chiming are;In azure of the bright Sicilian water,A billow that has rapt into its breastThe swayed reflection of a dancing star!
Words in this poem
- elusive a.
- Tending to elude; using arts or deception to escape; adroitly escaping or evading; eluding the grasp; fallacious.
- sicilian a.
- Of or pertaining to Sicily or its inhabitants. Sicilian vespers, the great massacre of the French in Sicily, in the year 1282, on the evening of Easter Monday, at the hour of vespers.
- billow n.
- A great wave or surge of the sea or other water, caused usually by violent wind. [Cf. Icel. bylgja billow, Dan. bölge, Sw. bölja; akin to MHG. bulge billow, bag, and to E. bulge. See Bulge.]
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- swayed a.
- Bent down, and hollow in the back; sway-backed; -- said of a horse.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Memory of Ellen Terry’s Beatrice is in the public domain. This text is taken from A chant of love for England, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #71425; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Helen Gray Cone, A Memory of Ellen Terry’s Beatrice, in A Chant of Love for England, and Other Poems (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #71425, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cone-chant-for-england/a-memory-of-ellen-terry-s-beatrice.html, id L22070.
Form and metre
A Memory of Ellen Terry’s Beatrice is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ABAAABBA snowsA · fleesB · mockeriesA · roseA · goesA · seizeB · teaseB · knowsA
- 2 ABCABC daughterA · possessedB · areC · waterA · breastB · starC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A wind of spring that whirls the feignéd snows | 9 | ········· |
| Of blossom-petals in the face, and flees: | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Elusive, made of mirthful mockeries, | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| Yet tender with the prescience of the rose; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| A strain desired, that through the memory goes, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Too subtle-slender for the voice to seize; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| A flame dissembled, only lit to tease, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Whose touch were half a kiss, if one but knows. | 10 | ·········· |
| She shows by Leonato’s dove-like daughter | 10 | ········/˘ |
| A falcon, by a prince to be possessed, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Gay-graced with bells that ever chiming are; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| In azure of the bright Sicilian water, | 11 | ·/˘···˘/˘/˘ |
| A billow that has rapt into its breast | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The swayed reflection of a dancing star! | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
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.