Lepage’s Joan of Arc
Once, it may be, the soft gray skies were dear,The clouds above in crowds, like sheep below,The bending of each kindly wrinkled tree;Or blossoms at the birth-time of the year,Or lambs unweaned, or water in still flow,In whose brown glass a girl her face might see.
Such days are gone, and strange things come instead;For she has looked on other faces white,Pale bloom of fear, before war’s whirlwind blown;Has stooped, ah Heaven! in some low sheltering shedTo tend dark wounds, the leaping arrow’s bite,While the cold death that hovered seemed her own.
And in her hurt heart, o’er some grilled head,The mother that shall never be has yearned;And love’s fine voice, she else shall never hear,Came to her as the call of saints long dead;And straightway all the passion in her burned,One altar-flame that hourly waxes clear.
Hence goes she ever in a glimmering dream,And very oft will sudden stand at gaze,With blue, dim eyes that still not seem to see:For now the well-known ways with visions teem;Unfelt is toil, and summer one green daze,Till that the king be crowned, and France be free!
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,]
- straightway adv.
- Immediately; without loss of time; without delay.
- hourly a.
- Happening or done every hour; occurring hour by hour; frequent; often repeated; renewed hour by hour; continual.
- teem v. t.
- To think fit. G. Gifford. [See Tame, a., and cf. Beteem.]
- daze v. t.
- To stupefy with excess of light; with a blow, with cold, or with fear; to confuse; to benumb. [OE. dasen, prob. from Icel. dasask to become weary, a reflexive verb; cf. Sw. dasa to lie idle, and OD. daesen to be foolish, insane, daes, dwaes, D. dwaas, foo]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lepage’s Joan of Arc 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, Lepage’s Joan of Arc, 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/lepage-s-joan-of-arc.html, id L22068.
Form and metre
Lepage’s Joan of Arc is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABCABC. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABCABC dearA · belowB · treeC · yearA · flowB · seeC
- 2 ABCABC insteadA · whiteB · blownC · shedA · biteB · ownC
- 3 ABCABC headA · yearnedB · hearC · deadA · burnedB · clearC
- 4 ABCABC dreamA · gazeB · seeC · teemA · dazeB · freeC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Once, it may be, the soft gray skies were dear, | 10 | ·········· |
| The clouds above in crowds, like sheep below, | 10 | ·········· |
| The bending of each kindly wrinkled tree; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Or blossoms at the birth-time of the year, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Or lambs unweaned, or water in still flow, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| In whose brown glass a girl her face might see. | 10 | ·········· |
| Such days are gone, and strange things come instead; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| For she has looked on other faces white, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Pale bloom of fear, before war’s whirlwind blown; | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Has stooped, ah Heaven! in some low sheltering shed | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| To tend dark wounds, the leaping arrow’s bite, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| While the cold death that hovered seemed her own. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And in her hurt heart, o’er some grilled head, | 10 | ········˘· |
| The mother that shall never be has yearned; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And love’s fine voice, she else shall never hear, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Came to her as the call of saints long dead; | 10 | ·········· |
| And straightway all the passion in her burned, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| One altar-flame that hourly waxes clear. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Hence goes she ever in a glimmering dream, | 10 | ···/··/˘˘· |
| And very oft will sudden stand at gaze, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| With blue, dim eyes that still not seem to see: | 10 | ·········· |
| For now the well-known ways with visions teem; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Unfelt is toil, and summer one green daze, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Till that the king be crowned, and France be free! | 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.