Beata Solitudo
What land of Silence,Where pale stars shineOn apple-blossomAnd dew-drenched vine,Is yours and mine?
The silent valleyThat we will find,Where all the voicesOf humankindAre left behind.
There all forgetting,Forgotten quite,We will repose us,With our delightHid out of sight.
The world forsaken,And out of mindHonour and labour,We shall not findThe stars unkind.
And men shall travail,And laugh and weep;But we have vistasOf Gods asleep,With dreams as deep.
A land of Silence,Where pale stars shineOn apple-blossomsAnd dew-drenched vine,Be yours and mine!
Words in this poem
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- 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,]
- unkind a.
- Having no race or kindred; childless. [See Kin kindred.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Beata Solitudo is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson, With a Memoir by Arthur Symons, Project Gutenberg ebook #8497; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ernest Dowson, Beata Solitudo, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/beata-solitudo.html, id L01639.
Form and metre
Beata Solitudo is 30 lines in 6 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.4 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 37% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 -A-AA silence · shineA · blossom · vineA · mineA
- 2 -A-AA valley · findA · voices · humankindA · behindA
- 3 -A-AA forgetting · quiteA · us · delightA · sightA
- 4 -A-AA forsaken · mindA · labour · findA · unkindA
- 5 -A-AA travail · weepA · vistas · asleepA · deepA
- 6 -A-AA silence · shineA · blossoms · vineA · mineA
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| What land of Silence, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Where pale stars shine | 4 | ···· |
| On apple-blossom | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| And dew-drenched vine, | 4 | ···· |
| Is yours and mine? | 4 | ···· |
| The silent valley | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| That we will find, | 4 | ···· |
| Where all the voices | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Of humankind | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Are left behind. | 4 | ···· |
| There all forgetting, | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| Forgotten quite, | 4 | ˘/˘· |
| We will repose us, | 5 | ··˘/· |
| With our delight | 4 | ·/˘/ |
| Hid out of sight. | 4 | ···· |
| The world forsaken, | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| And out of mind | 4 | ···· |
| Honour and labour, | 5 | /˘·/· |
| We shall not find | 4 | ···· |
| The stars unkind. | 4 | ··˘/ |
| And men shall travail, | 5 | ···˘/ |
| And laugh and weep; | 4 | ···· |
| But we have vistas | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Of Gods asleep, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| With dreams as deep. | 4 | ···· |
| A land of Silence, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Where pale stars shine | 4 | ···· |
| On apple-blossoms | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| And dew-drenched vine, | 4 | ···· |
| Be yours and mine! | 4 | ···· |
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.