Verses
Amidst its alders IVOR'S palace lies,In heaps of ruins to my wondering eyes;Where greatness dwelt in pomp, now thistles reign,And prickly thorns assert their wide domain.
No longer Bards inspired, thy tables grace.Nor hospitable deeds adorn the place;No more the generous owner gives his goldTo modest merit, as to Bards of old.
In plaintive verse his IVOR--GWILYM moans,His Patron lost the pensive Poet groans;What mighty loss, that IVOR'S lofty hall,Should now with schreeching owls rehearse its fall!
Attend, ye great, and hear the solemn sound,How short your greatness this proclaims around,Strange that such pride should fill the human breast,Yon mouldering walls the vanity attest.
"A chronology from Vortigern downwards, supposed to be collected byRobert Vaughan, of Hengwrt, Esquire, which seems to be in the volumebeginning with Sir John Wynne's pedigree of the family of Gwydir.
Your affectionate, and obedient servant,
Y forwyn gynt, fawr iawn gais,Deg aruthr erioed a gerais.
The word Aruthr, though much used, in the sense you take it, seems notproper here; yet Dr. Davies translates it Mirus. I cannot think butthe original import of the word is terrible; and they cannot say inEnglish of a woman, she is terribly fair. Rhuthr, from whenceAruthr is compounded, I dare say had that sense, at least:--
Words in this poem
- amidst prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- generous a.
- Of honorable birth or origin; highborn. [F. généreux, fr. L. generous of noble birth, noble, excellent, magnanimous, fr. genus birth, race: cf. It. generoso. See 2d Gender.]
- attest v. t.
- To bear witness to; to certify; to affirm to be true or genuine; as, to attest the truth of a writing, a copy of record. [L. attestari; ad + testari to bear witness: cf. F. attester.]
- pedigree n.
- A line of ancestors; descent; lineage; genealogy; a register or record of a line of ancestors. [Of unknown origin; possibly fr. F. par degrés by degrees, -- for a pedigree is properly a genealogical table which records the relationship of families by degre]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Verses is in the public domain. This text is taken from Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Ancient Welsh Bards, Project Gutenberg ebook #32767; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Evan Evans, Verses, in Specimens of the Poetry of the Ancient Welsh Bards (1764), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32767, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/evans-welsh/verses.html, id L11885.
Form and metre
Verses is 27 lines in 8 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 8 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 26% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABB liesA · eyesA · reignB · domainB
- 2 AABB graceA · placeA · goldB · oldB
- 3 AABB moansA · groansA · hallB · fallB
- 4 AABB soundA · aroundA · breastB · attestB
- 7 AA gaisA · geraisA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Amidst its alders IVOR'S palace lies, | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘/˘· |
| In heaps of ruins to my wondering eyes; | 11 | ···/˘··/˘˘· |
| Where greatness dwelt in pomp, now thistles reign, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And prickly thorns assert their wide domain. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/··˘/ |
| No longer Bards inspired, thy tables grace. | 11 | ·/˘·˘/˘·/˘· |
| Nor hospitable deeds adorn the place; | 10 | ·//˘˘·˘/·· |
| No more the generous owner gives his gold | 11 | ···/˘˘/˘··· |
| To modest merit, as to Bards of old. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| In plaintive verse his IVOR--GWILYM moans, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| His Patron lost the pensive Poet groans; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| What mighty loss, that IVOR'S lofty hall, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Should now with schreeching owls rehearse its fall! | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Attend, ye great, and hear the solemn sound, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| How short your greatness this proclaims around, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Strange that such pride should fill the human breast, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Yon mouldering walls the vanity attest. | 11 | ·/˘˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| "A chronology from Vortigern downwards, supposed to be collected by | 19 | ·˘/˘˘····/˘˘/··˘/˘· |
| Robert Vaughan, of Hengwrt, Esquire, which seems to be in the volume | 15 | /˘···/·······/˘ |
| beginning with Sir John Wynne's pedigree of the family of Gwydir. | 18 | ˘/˘····/˘˘··/˘˘··· |
| Your affectionate, and obedient servant, | 12 | ·˘/˘˘·˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Y forwyn gynt, fawr iawn gais, | 7 | ······· |
| Deg aruthr erioed a gerais. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| The word Aruthr, though much used, in the sense you take it, seems not | 15 | ··············· |
| proper here; yet Dr. Davies translates it Mirus. I cannot think but | 17 | /˘···/˘˘/····/˘·· |
| the original import of the word is terrible; and they cannot say in | 20 | ·˘/˘˘˘/····/˘˘··/˘·· |
| English of a woman, she is terribly fair. Rhuthr, from whence | 15 | /˘··/˘··/˘˘···· |
| Aruthr is compounded, I dare say had that sense, at least:-- | 14 | ···˘/˘········ |
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.