The "Happy Isles" of Horace
Oh, come with me to the Happy IslesIn the golden haze off yonder,Where the song of the sun-kissed breeze beguiles,And the ocean loves to wander.
Fragrant the vines that mantle those hills,Proudly the fig rejoices;Merrily dance the virgin rills,Blending their myriad voices.
Our herds shall fear no evil there,But peacefully feed and rest them;Neither shall serpent nor prowling bearEver come there to molest them.
Neither shall Eurus, wanton bold,Nor feverish drouth distress us,But he that compasseth heat and coldShall temper them both to bless us.
There no vandal foot has trod,And the pirate hosts that wanderShall never profane the sacred sodOf those beautiful Isles out yonder.
Never a spell shall blight our vines,Nor Sirius blaze above us,But you and I shall drink our winesAnd sing to the loved that love us.
So come with me where Fortune smilesAnd the gods invite devotion,--Oh, come with me to the Happy IslesIn the haze of that far-off ocean!
Words in this poem
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- blending n.
- The act of mingling.
- myriad n.
- The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. [Gr. myriade.]
- 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,]
- prowling a.
- Accustomed to prowl, or engaged in roving stealthily, as for prey.
- molest v. t.
- To trouble; to disturb; to render uneasy; to interfere with; to vex. [F. molester, L. molestare, fr. molestus troublesome, fr. moles a heavy mass, load, burden. See 3d Mole.]
- sirius n.
- The Dog Star. See Dog Star.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The "Happy Isles" of Horace 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, The "Happy Isles" of Horace, in A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9606, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-western-verse/the-happy-isles-of-horace.html, id L24668.
Form and metre
The "Happy Isles" of Horace is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABAB islesA · yonderB · beguilesA · wanderB
- 2 ABAB hillsA · rejoicesB · rillsA · voicesB
- 3 ABAB thereA · themB · bearA · themB
- 4 ABAB boldA · usB · coldA · usB
- 5 ABAB trodA · wanderB · sodA · yonderB
- 6 ABAB vinesA · usB · winesA · usB
- 7 ABAB smilesA · devotionB · islesA · oceanB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, come with me to the Happy Isles | 9 | ······/˘· |
| In the golden haze off yonder, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Where the song of the sun-kissed breeze beguiles, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And the ocean loves to wander. | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Fragrant the vines that mantle those hills, | 9 | /˘···/˘·· |
| Proudly the fig rejoices; | 7 | /˘··˘/˘ |
| Merrily dance the virgin rills, | 8 | /˘˘··/˘· |
| Blending their myriad voices. | 8 | /˘·/˘˘/˘ |
| Our herds shall fear no evil there, | 8 | /····/˘· |
| But peacefully feed and rest them; | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Neither shall serpent nor prowling bear | 9 | /˘·/˘·/˘· |
| Ever come there to molest them. | 8 | /˘···˘/· |
| Neither shall Eurus, wanton bold, | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| Nor feverish drouth distress us, | 8 | ·/˘˘·˘/· |
| But he that compasseth heat and cold | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Shall temper them both to bless us. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| There no vandal foot has trod, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And the pirate hosts that wander | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Shall never profane the sacred sod | 8 | ·/˘/·/˘· |
| Of those beautiful Isles out yonder. | 9 | ··/˘˘··/˘ |
| Never a spell shall blight our vines, | 8 | /····/˘· |
| Nor Sirius blaze above us, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| But you and I shall drink our wines | 8 | ······/· |
| And sing to the loved that love us. | 8 | ········ |
| So come with me where Fortune smiles | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And the gods invite devotion,-- | 8 | ···˘/˘/˘ |
| Oh, come with me to the Happy Isles | 9 | ······/˘· |
| In the haze of that far-off ocean! | 9 | ·······/˘ |
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.