Epilogue
May walks in this garden, fairAs a girl veiled in her hairAnd decked in tender green and gold;And yet my marble heart is coldWithin these walls where people passAcross the close-clipped emerald grassTo stare at me with stupid eyesOr stand in noisy ecstasiesBefore my marble, while the breezeThat whispers in the shivering treesSings of quiet hill and plain,Of vales where softly broods the rain,Of orchards whose pink flaunted trees,Gold flecked by myriad humming bees,Enclose a roof-thatch faded gray,Like a giant hive. AwayTo brilliant pines upon the seaWhere waves linger silkenlyUpon the shelving sand, and sedgeRustling gray along the edgeOf dunes that rise against the skyWhere painted sea-gulls wheel and fly.
Ah, how all this calls to meWho marble-bound must ever beWhile turn unchangingly the years.My heart is full, yet sheds no tearsTo cool my burning carven eyesBent to the unchanging skies:I would be sad with changing year,Instead, a sad, bound prisoner,For though about me seasons goMy heart knows only winter snow.
Words in this poem
- veiled a.
- Covered by, or as by, a veil; hidden.
- myriad n.
- The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. [Gr. myriade.]
- enclose v. t.
- To inclose. See Inclose. [F. enclos, p. p. of enclore to enclose; pref. en- (L. in) + clore to close. See Close, and cf. Inclose, Include.]
- shelving a.
- Sloping gradually; inclining; as, a shelving shore.
- carven a.
- Wrought by carving; ornamented by carvings; carved.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epilogue is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Marble Faun, Wikisource; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Faulkner, Epilogue, in The Marble Faun (1924), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/faulkner-marble-faun/epilogue.html, id L28630.
Form and metre
Epilogue is 32 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 88% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFEEGGH-IIHH fairA · hairA · goldB · coldB · passC · grassC · eyesD · ecstasiesD · breezeE · treesE · plainF · rainF · treesE · beesE · grayG · awayG · seaH · silkenly · sedgeI · edgeI · skyH · flyH
- 2 AABBCC--DD meA · beA · yearsB · tearsB · eyesC · skiesC · year · prisoner · goD · snowD
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| May walks in this garden, fair | 7 | ····/˘· |
| As a girl veiled in her hair | 8 | ····˘··· |
| And decked in tender green and gold; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And yet my marble heart is cold | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Within these walls where people pass | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Across the close-clipped emerald grass | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| To stare at me with stupid eyes | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Or stand in noisy ecstasies | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Before my marble, while the breeze | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That whispers in the shivering trees | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Sings of quiet hill and plain, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Of vales where softly broods the rain, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of orchards whose pink flaunted trees, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Gold flecked by myriad humming bees, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Enclose a roof-thatch faded gray, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| Like a giant hive. Away | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| To brilliant pines upon the sea | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Where waves linger silkenly | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Upon the shelving sand, and sedge | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Rustling gray along the edge | 7 | /˘·˘/·· |
| Of dunes that rise against the sky | 8 | ········ |
| Where painted sea-gulls wheel and fly. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Ah, how all this calls to me | 7 | ······· |
| Who marble-bound must ever be | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| While turn unchangingly the years. | 8 | ········ |
| My heart is full, yet sheds no tears | 8 | ········ |
| To cool my burning carven eyes | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Bent to the unchanging skies: | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| I would be sad with changing year, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Instead, a sad, bound prisoner, | 8 | ˘/···/˘˘ |
| For though about me seasons go | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| My heart knows only winter snow. | 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.