First Stasimon
CHORUS. Some Women.O Women, have ye heard? Nay, dare ye hearThe desolate cry of the young Queen's misery?
A Woman.My Queen, I love thee dear,Yet liefer were I dead than framed like thee.
Others.Woe, woe to me for this thy bitter bane,Surely the food man feeds upon is pain!
Others.How wilt thou bear thee through this livelong day,Lost, and thine evil naked to the light?Strange things are close upon us--who shall sayHow strange?--save one thing that is plain to sight,The stroke of the Cyprian and the fall thereofOn thee, thou child of the Isle of fearful Love!
Words in this poem
- bane v. t.
- To be the bane of; to ruin. Fuller.
- livelong a.
- Whole; entire; long in passing; -- used of time, as day or night, in adverbial phrases, and usually with a sense of tediousness. [For lifelong. Cf. Lifelong.]
- 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,]
- cyprian a.
- Belonging to Cyprus.
- isle v. t.
- To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
First Stasimon is in the public domain. This text is taken from Hippolytus of Euripides, translated into English rhyming verse by Gilbert Murray (Harvard Classics reprint), Project Gutenberg ebook #8418, 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 Hippolytus (1902), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8418, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/euripides-hippolytus/first-stasimon.html, id L28788.
Form and metre
First Stasimon is 16 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
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.
- 3 -AA others · baneA · painA
- 4 -ABABCC others · dayA · lightB · sayA · sightB · thereofC · loveC
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. Some Women. | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| O Women, have ye heard? Nay, dare ye hear | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The desolate cry of the young Queen's misery? | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘˘ |
| A Woman. | 3 | ·/˘ |
| My Queen, I love thee dear, | 6 | ······ |
| Yet liefer were I dead than framed like thee. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Others. | 2 | /˘ |
| Woe, woe to me for this thy bitter bane, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Surely the food man feeds upon is pain! | 10 | /˘········ |
| Others. | 2 | /˘ |
| How wilt thou bear thee through this livelong day, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Lost, and thine evil naked to the light? | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Strange things are close upon us--who shall say | 10 | ·········· |
| How strange?--save one thing that is plain to sight, | 10 | ·········· |
| The stroke of the Cyprian and the fall thereof | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| On thee, thou child of the Isle of fearful Love! | 11 | ········/˘· |
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.