Ages Ago
Launcelot loved Guinevere,Ages and ages ago,Beautiful as a bird was she,Preening its wings in a cypress tree,Happy in sadness, she and he,They loved each other so.
Helen of Troy was beautifulAs tender flower in May,Her loveliness from the towers looked down,With the sweet moon for silver crown,Over the walls of Troy Town,Hundreds of years away.
Cleopatra, Egypt's Queen,Was wondrous kind to ken,As when the stars in the dark skyLike buds on thorny branches lie,So seemed she too to Antony,That age-gone prince of men.
The Pyramids are old stones,Scarred is that grey face,That by the greenness of Old NileGazes with an unchanging smile,Man with all mystery to beguileAnd give his thinking grace.
Words in this poem
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ages Ago is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Listeners and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22569; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter de la Mare, Ages Ago, in The Listeners and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22569, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-listeners/ages-ago.html, id L17109.
Form and metre
Ages Ago is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% 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 -ABBBA guinevere · agoA · sheB · treeB · heB · soA
- 2 -ABBBA beautiful · mayA · downB · crownB · townB · awayA
- 3 -ABB-A queen · kenA · skyB · lieB · antony · menA
- 4 -ABBBA stones · faceA · nileB · smileB · beguileB · graceA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Launcelot loved Guinevere, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Ages and ages ago, | 7 | /˘·/˘˘/ |
| Beautiful as a bird was she, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Preening its wings in a cypress tree, | 9 | /˘····/˘· |
| Happy in sadness, she and he, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| They loved each other so. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Helen of Troy was beautiful | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
| As tender flower in May, | 6 | ·/˘/·· |
| Her loveliness from the towers looked down, | 9 | ·/˘˘··/·· |
| With the sweet moon for silver crown, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Over the walls of Troy Town, | 6 | ······ |
| Hundreds of years away. | 6 | /˘··˘/ |
| Cleopatra, Egypt's Queen, | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘· |
| Was wondrous kind to ken, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| As when the stars in the dark sky | 8 | ········ |
| Like buds on thorny branches lie, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| So seemed she too to Antony, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| That age-gone prince of men. | 6 | ······ |
| The Pyramids are old stones, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Scarred is that grey face, | 6 | ·˘···· |
| That by the greenness of Old Nile | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Gazes with an unchanging smile, | 8 | /˘··˘/˘· |
| Man with all mystery to beguile | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And give his thinking grace. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.