Orion Dead
The cornel-treesuplift from the furrows,the roots at their bases,strike lower through the barley-sprays.
So arise and face me.I am poisoned with the rage of song.
I once pierced the fleshof the wild deer,now I am afraid to touchthe blue and the gold-veined hyacinths?
I will tear the full flowersand the little headsof the grape-hyacinths,I will strip the life from the bulbuntil the ivory layerslie like narcissus petalson the black earth.
Arise,lest I bend an ash-treeinto a taut bow,and slay--and tearall the roots from the earth.
I break a staff,I break the tough branch.I know no light in the woods.I have lost pace with the wind.
Words in this poem
- uplift v. t.
- To lift or raise aloft; to raise; to elevate; as, to uplift the arm; to uplift a rock.
- narcissus n.
- A genus of endogenous bulbous plants with handsome flowers, having a cup-shaped crown within the six-lobed perianth, and comprising the daffodils and jonquils of several kinds. [L. narcissus, and (personified) Narcissus, Gr. na`rkissos, Na`rkissos, fr. na`rkh torpor, in allusion to the narcotic properties of the flower. Cf. Narcotic.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Orion Dead is in the public domain. This text is taken from Heliodora, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #62456; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: H.D., Orion Dead, in Heliodora, and Other Poems (1924), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #62456, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hd-heliodora/orion-dead.html, id L24322.
Form and metre
Orion Dead is 26 lines in 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 AAAA treesA · furrowsA · basesA · spraysA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The cornel-trees | 4 | ·/˘· |
| uplift from the furrows, | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| the roots at their bases, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| strike lower through the barley-sprays. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| So arise and face me. | 6 | ·˘/··· |
| I am poisoned with the rage of song. | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| I once pierced the flesh | 5 | ····· |
| of the wild deer, | 4 | ···· |
| now I am afraid to touch | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| the blue and the gold-veined hyacinths? | 9 | ······/˘˘ |
| I will tear the full flowers | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| and the little heads | 5 | ··/˘· |
| of the grape-hyacinths, | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| I will strip the life from the bulb | 8 | ········ |
| until the ivory layers | 8 | ···/˘˘/˘ |
| lie like narcissus petals | 7 | ··˘/˘/˘ |
| on the black earth. | 4 | ···· |
| Arise, | 2 | ˘/ |
| lest I bend an ash-tree | 6 | ······ |
| into a taut bow, | 5 | ····· |
| and slay--and tear | 4 | ···· |
| all the roots from the earth. | 6 | ······ |
| I break a staff, | 4 | ···· |
| I break the tough branch. | 5 | ····· |
| I know no light in the woods. | 7 | ······· |
| I have lost pace with the wind. | 7 | ······· |
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.