The Sibyl
A maid who mindful of her playful timeSteps to her summer, bearing childhood onTo woman’s beauty, heedless of her prime:The early day but not the pastime gone:She is the Sibyl, uttering a doomOut of her spotless bloom.
She is the Sibyl; seek not, then, her voice;—A laugh, a song, a sorrow, but thy share,With woes at hand for many who rejoiceThat she shall utter; that shall many hear;That warn all hearts who seek of her their fates,Her love but one awaits.
She is the Sibyl; days that distant lieBend to the promise that her word shall give;Already hath she eyes that prophesy,For of her beauty shall all beauty live:Unknown to her, in her slow opening bloom,She turns the leaves of doom.
Words in this poem
- mindful a.
- Bearing in mind; regardful; attentive; heedful; observant.
- childhood n.
- The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
- pastime n.
- That which amuses, and serves to make time pass agreeably; sport; amusement; diversion. [Pass + time: cf. F. passetemps.]
- sibyl n.
- A woman supposed to be endowed with a spirit of prophecy.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sibyl 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 Sibyl, in Poems (1870), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #78947, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hake-poems/the-sibyl.html, id L23615.
Form and metre
The Sibyl is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABABCC timeA · onB · primeA · goneB · doomC · bloomC
- 2 ABABCC voiceA · shareB · rejoiceA · hearB · fatesC · awaitsC
- 3 -A-ABB lie · giveA · prophesy · liveA · bloomB · doomB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A maid who mindful of her playful time | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Steps to her summer, bearing childhood on | 10 | ···/˘/˘/·· |
| To woman’s beauty, heedless of her prime: | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| The early day but not the pastime gone: | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| She is the Sibyl, uttering a doom | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| Out of her spotless bloom. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| She is the Sibyl; seek not, then, her voice;— | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| A laugh, a song, a sorrow, but thy share, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| With woes at hand for many who rejoice | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| That she shall utter; that shall many hear; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That warn all hearts who seek of her their fates, | 10 | ·········· |
| Her love but one awaits. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| She is the Sibyl; days that distant lie | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Bend to the promise that her word shall give; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Already hath she eyes that prophesy, | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘˘ |
| For of her beauty shall all beauty live: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Unknown to her, in her slow opening bloom, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| She turns the leaves of doom. | 6 | ······ |
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.