First Stasimon
CHORUS. THIRD ELDER.O Zeus,What escape and whereFrom the evil thing?How break the snareThat is round our King?
SECOND ELDER.Ah list!One cometh?... No.Let us no more wait;Make dark our raimentAnd shear this hair.
LEADER.Aye, friends!'Tis so, even so.Yet the gods are greatAnd may send allayment.To prayer, to prayer!
ALL (praying).O Paian wise!Some healing of this home devise, devise!Find, find.... Oh, long ago when we were blindThine eyes saw mercy ... find some healing breath!Again, O Paian, break the chains that bind;Stay the red hand of Death!
LEADER.Alas!What shame, what dread,Thou Pheres' son,Shalt be harvestedWhen thy wife is gone!
SECOND ELDER.Ah me;For a deed less drearThan this thou ruestMen have died for sorrow;Aye, hearts have bled.
THIRD ELDER.'Tis she;Not as men say dear,But the dearest, truest,Shall lie ere morrowBefore thee dead!
ALL.But lo! Once more!She and her husband moving to the door!Cry, cry! And thou, O land of Pherae, hearken!The bravest of women sinketh, perisheth,Under the green earth, down where the shadows darken,Down to the House of Death!
(During the last words ADMETUS and ALCESTIS have entered. ALCESTIS is supported by her Handmaids and followed by her two children.)
LEADER.And who hath said that Love shall bringMore joy to man than fear and strife?I knew his perils from of old,I know them now, when I beholdThe bitter faring of my King,Whose love is taken, and his lifeLeft evermore an empty thing.
Words in this poem
- allayment n.
- An allaying; that which allays; mitigation.
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- drear n.
- Sadness; dismalness.
- 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,]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
First Stasimon is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Alcestis of Euripides, translated into English rhyming verse by Gilbert Murray, Project Gutenberg ebook #10523, the Gilbert Murray translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Euripides, First Stasimon, in Alcestis (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10523, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/euripides-alcestis/first-stasimon.html, id L28801.
Form and metre
First Stasimon is 59 lines in 10 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 --ABAB elder · zeus · whereA · thingB · snareA · kingB
- 2 --CD-E elder · list · noC · waitD · raiment · hairE
- 3 --CD-E leader · friends · soC · greatD · allayment · prayerE
- 4 -FFGHGH praying · wiseF · deviseF · blindG · breathH · bindG · deathH
- 6 -IJ-KL elder · meI · drearJ · ruest · sorrowK · bledL
- 7 -IJ-KL elder · sheI · dearJ · truest · morrowK · deadL
- 8 -MMN-N- all · moreM · doorM · hearkenN · perisheth · darkenN · death
- 10 -OPQQOPO leader · bringO · strifeP · oldQ · beholdQ · kingO · lifeP · thingO
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 |
|---|---|---|
| CHORUS. THIRD ELDER. | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| O Zeus, | 2 | ·· |
| What escape and where | 5 | ·˘/·· |
| From the evil thing? | 5 | ··/˘· |
| How break the snare | 4 | ···· |
| That is round our King? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| SECOND ELDER. | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| Ah list! | 2 | ·· |
| One cometh?... No. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Let us no more wait; | 5 | ····· |
| Make dark our raiment | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| And shear this hair. | 4 | ···· |
| LEADER. | 2 | /˘ |
| Aye, friends! | 2 | ·· |
| 'Tis so, even so. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Yet the gods are great | 5 | ····· |
| And may send allayment. | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| To prayer, to prayer! | 4 | ···· |
| ALL (praying). | 3 | ·/˘ |
| O Paian wise! | 3 | ··· |
| Some healing of this home devise, devise! | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘/ |
| Find, find.... Oh, long ago when we were blind | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Thine eyes saw mercy ... find some healing breath! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Again, O Paian, break the chains that bind; | 9 | ˘/······· |
| Stay the red hand of Death! | 6 | ······ |
| LEADER. | 2 | /˘ |
| Alas! | 2 | ˘/ |
| What shame, what dread, | 4 | ···· |
| Thou Pheres' son, | 3 | ··· |
| Shalt be harvested | 5 | ··/˘˘ |
| When thy wife is gone! | 5 | ····· |
| SECOND ELDER. | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| Ah me; | 2 | ·· |
| For a deed less drear | 5 | ····· |
| Than this thou ruest | 4 | ···· |
| Men have died for sorrow; | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Aye, hearts have bled. | 4 | ···· |
| THIRD ELDER. | 3 | ·/˘ |
| 'Tis she; | 2 | ·· |
| Not as men say dear, | 5 | ····· |
| But the dearest, truest, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Shall lie ere morrow | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Before thee dead! | 4 | ···· |
| ALL. | 1 | · |
| But lo! Once more! | 4 | ···· |
| She and her husband moving to the door! | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Cry, cry! And thou, O land of Pherae, hearken! | 10 | ········/˘ |
| The bravest of women sinketh, perisheth, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Under the green earth, down where the shadows darken, | 12 | ········/·/˘ |
| Down to the House of Death! | 6 | ······ |
| (During the last words ADMETUS and ALCESTIS have entered. ALCESTIS is supported by her Handmaids and followed by her two children.) | 34 | /˘···········/˘····˘/˘·····/˘···/˘ |
| LEADER. | 2 | /˘ |
| And who hath said that Love shall bring | 8 | ········ |
| More joy to man than fear and strife? | 8 | ········ |
| I knew his perils from of old, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I know them now, when I behold | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The bitter faring of my King, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Whose love is taken, and his life | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Left evermore an empty thing. | 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.