Fifth Stasimon
CHORUS. Some Maidens.Weave ye the dance, and callPraise to God!Bless ye the Tyrant's fall!Down is trodPentheus, the Dragon's Seed!Wore he the woman's weed?Clasped he his death indeed,Clasped the rod?
A Bacchanal.Yea, the wild ivy lapt him, and the doomedWild Bull of Sacrifice before him loomed!
Others.Ye who did Bromios scorn,Praise Him the more,Bacchanals, Cadmus-born;Praise with soreAgony, yea, with tears!Great are the gifts he bears!Hands that a mother rearsRed with gore!
Words in this poem
- bacchanal a.
- Relating to Bacchus or his festival. [L. Bacchanalis. See Bacchanalia.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fifth Stasimon is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Bacchae of Euripides, translated into English verse by Gilbert Murray, Project Gutenberg ebook #35173, 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, Fifth Stasimon, in The Bacchae (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #35173, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/euripides-bacchae/fifth-stasimon.html, id L28774.
Form and metre
Fifth Stasimon is 21 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 -ABABCCCB maidens · callA · godB · fallA · trodB · seedC · weedC · indeedC · rodB
- 2 -AA bacchanal · doomedA · loomedA
- 3 -ABABCC-B others · scornA · moreB · bornA · soreB · tearsC · bearsC · rears · goreB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| CHORUS. Some Maidens. | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Weave ye the dance, and call | 6 | ······ |
| Praise to God! | 3 | ··· |
| Bless ye the Tyrant's fall! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Down is trod | 3 | ··· |
| Pentheus, the Dragon's Seed! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Wore he the woman's weed? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Clasped he his death indeed, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Clasped the rod? | 3 | ··· |
| A Bacchanal. | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| Yea, the wild ivy lapt him, and the doomed | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Wild Bull of Sacrifice before him loomed! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Others. | 2 | /˘ |
| Ye who did Bromios scorn, | 6 | ······ |
| Praise Him the more, | 4 | ···· |
| Bacchanals, Cadmus-born; | 6 | ˘/˘/˘· |
| Praise with sore | 3 | ··· |
| Agony, yea, with tears! | 6 | /˘˘··· |
| Great are the gifts he bears! | 6 | ······ |
| Hands that a mother rears | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Red with gore! | 3 | ··· |
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.