Horace to Melpomene
Lofty and enduring is the monument I've reared,--Come, tempests, with your bitterness assailing;And thou, corrosive blasts of time, by all things mortal feared,Thy buffets and thy rage are unavailing!
I shall not altogether die; by far my greater partShall mock man's common fate in realms infernal;My works shall live as tributes to my genius and my art,--My works shall be my monument eternal!
While this great Roman empire stands and gods protect our fanes,Mankind with grateful hearts shall tell the story,How one most lowly born upon the parched Apulian plainsFirst raised the native lyric muse to glory.
Assume, revered Melpomene, the proud estate I've won,And, with thine own dear hand the meed supplying,Bind thou about the forehead of thy celebrated sonThe Delphic laurel-wreath of fame undying!
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- altogether adv.
- All together; conjointly. [OE. altogedere; al all + togedere together. See Together.]
- melpomene n.
- The Muse of tragedy.
- meed v. t.
- To reward; to repay. Waytt.
- delphic a.
- Of or relating to Delphi, or to the famous oracle of that place. [L. Delphicus, fr. Gr. Delphi, a town of Phocis, in Greece, now Kastri.]
- undying a.
- Not dying; imperishable; unending; immortal; as, the undying souls of men.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Horace to Melpomene is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Little Book of Western Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #9606; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eugene Field, Horace to Melpomene, in A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9606, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-western-verse/horace-to-melpomene.html, id L24648.
Form and metre
Horace to Melpomene is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 rearedA · assailingB · fearedA · unavailingB
- 2 ABAB partA · infernalB · artA · eternalB
- 3 ABAB fanesA · storyB · plainsA · gloryB
- 4 ABAB wonA · supplyingB · sonA · undyingB
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Lofty and enduring is the monument I've reared,-- | 12 | /˘·˘/˘··/˘·· |
| Come, tempests, with your bitterness assailing; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘/˘ |
| And thou, corrosive blasts of time, by all things mortal feared, | 14 | ··˘/˘······/˘· |
| Thy buffets and thy rage are unavailing! | 11 | ·/˘·····˘/˘ |
| I shall not altogether die; by far my greater part | 14 | ····˘/˘····/˘· |
| Shall mock man's common fate in realms infernal; | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| My works shall live as tributes to my genius and my art,-- | 14 | ·····/˘··/˘··· |
| My works shall be my monument eternal! | 10 | ·····/˘˘/˘ |
| While this great Roman empire stands and gods protect our fanes, | 14 | ···/˘/˘···˘//· |
| Mankind with grateful hearts shall tell the story, | 11 | //·/˘····/˘ |
| How one most lowly born upon the parched Apulian plains | 14 | ···/˘········· |
| First raised the native lyric muse to glory. | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Assume, revered Melpomene, the proud estate I've won, | 14 | ˘/˘/˘/˘˘··˘/·· |
| And, with thine own dear hand the meed supplying, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Bind thou about the forehead of thy celebrated son | 14 | ·····/˘··/˘·˘· |
| The Delphic laurel-wreath of fame undying! | 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.