The Infant Medusa
I loved Medusa when she was a child,Her rich brown tresses heaped in crispy curlWhere now those locks with reptile passion whirl,By hate into dishevelled serpents coiled.I loved Medusa when her eyes were mild,Whose glances, narrowed now, perdition hurl,As her self-tangled hairs their mass unfurl,Bristling the way she turns with hissings wild.
Her mouth I kissed when curved with amorous spell,Now shaped to the unuttered curse of hell,Wide open for death’s orbs to freeze upon;Her eyes I loved ere glazed in icy stare,Ere mortals, lured into their ruthless glare,She shrivelled in her gaze to pulseless stone.
Words in this poem
- crispy a.
- Formed into short, close ringlets; frizzed; crisp; as, crispy locks.
- perdition n.
- Entire loss; utter destruction; ruin; esp., the utter loss of the soul, or of final happiness in a future state; future misery or eternal death. [F., fr. L. perditio, fr. perdere, perditum, to ruin, to lose; per (cf. Skr. para away) + -dere (only in comp.) to put; akin to Gr. do. See Do.]
- unfurl v. t.
- To loose from a furled state; to unfold; to expand; to open or spread; as, to unfurl sails; to unfurl a flag. [1st pref. un- + furl.]
- ruthless a.
- Having no ruth; cruel; pitiless.
- glare v. i.
- To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
- pulseless a.
- Having no pulsation; lifeless.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Infant Medusa is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poems of Thomas Gordon Hake, Project Gutenberg ebook #78947; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Gordon Hake, The Infant Medusa, in Poems (1870), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #78947, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hake-poems/by-poseidon.html, id L23600.
Form and metre
The Infant Medusa is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 ABB-ABBA childA · curlB · whirlB · coiled · mildA · hurlB · unfurlB · wildA
- 2 AA-BB- spellA · hellA · upon · stareB · glareB · stone
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I loved Medusa when she was a child, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Her rich brown tresses heaped in crispy curl | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Where now those locks with reptile passion whirl, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| By hate into dishevelled serpents coiled. | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| I loved Medusa when her eyes were mild, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Whose glances, narrowed now, perdition hurl, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| As her self-tangled hairs their mass unfurl, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Bristling the way she turns with hissings wild. | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Her mouth I kissed when curved with amorous spell, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Now shaped to the unuttered curse of hell, | 10 | ·········· |
| Wide open for death’s orbs to freeze upon; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Her eyes I loved ere glazed in icy stare, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Ere mortals, lured into their ruthless glare, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| She shrivelled in her gaze to pulseless stone. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
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.