Apollonia
Fair Apollonia, name august,Greek echo of the sacred vale,Great name whose harmonies robustThee as Apollo's sister hail!
Struck with the plectrum on the lyre,And in melodious beauty sung,Brighter than love's and glory's fire,It resonant rings upon the tongue.
At such a classic sound as this,The elves plunge down their German lake.Alone the Delphian worthy isSo lustreful a name to take,--
Pythia! when in her flowing dressShe mounts her place with feet unshod,And, priestess white and prophetess,Wistful awaits the tardy god.
Words in this poem
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- plectrum n.
- A small instrument of ivory, wood, metal, or quill, used in playing upon the lyre and other stringed instruments.
- classic a.
- Of or relating to the first class or rank, especially in literature or art. [L. classicus relating to the classes of the Roman people, and especially to the frist class; hence, of the first rank, superior, from classis class: cf. F. clas]
- priestess n.
- A woman who officiated in sacred rites among pagans. Abp.
- prophetess n.
- A female prophet. [Cf. F. prophétesse, L. prophetissa.]
- wistful a.
- Longing; wishful; desirous. [For wishful; perhaps influenced by wistly, which is probably corrupted from OE. wisly certainly (from Icel. viss certain, akin to E. wit). See Wish.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Apollonia is in the public domain. This text is taken from Enamels and Cameos and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #29521, the Agnes Lee 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: Théophile Gautier, Apollonia, in Enamels and Cameos and Other Poems (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29521, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/gautier-enamels-cameos/apollonia.html, id L27009.
Form and metre
Apollonia is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See 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 ABAB augustA · valeB · robustA · hailB
- 2 ABAB lyreA · sungB · fireA · tongueB
- 3 ABAB thisA · lakeB · isA · takeB
- 4 ABAB dressA · unshodB · prophetessA · godB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fair Apollonia, name august, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Greek echo of the sacred vale, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Great name whose harmonies robust | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| Thee as Apollo's sister hail! | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Struck with the plectrum on the lyre, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And in melodious beauty sung, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Brighter than love's and glory's fire, | 9 | /˘···/˘/˘ |
| It resonant rings upon the tongue. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| At such a classic sound as this, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The elves plunge down their German lake. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Alone the Delphian worthy is | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘· |
| So lustreful a name to take,-- | 8 | ········ |
| Pythia! when in her flowing dress | 8 | /˘˘···/· |
| She mounts her place with feet unshod, | 8 | ········ |
| And, priestess white and prophetess, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| Wistful awaits the tardy god. | 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.