Continuation of Orestes’ Soliloquy
Hark! in the trembling leavesMysterious whispers: hark! a rushing soundSweeps through yon twilight depth!--e’en now they come,They throng to greet their guest! And who are theyRejoicing each with each in stately joy,As a king’s children gather’d for the hourOf some high festival! Exultingly,And kindred-like, and godlike, on they pass--The glorious, wandering shapes! aged and young,Proud men and royal women! Lo! my race--My sire’s ancestral race!
Words in this poem
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Continuation of Orestes’ Soliloquy is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, Continuation of Orestes’ Soliloquy, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/continuation-of-orestes-soliloquy.html, id L19793.
Form and metre
Continuation of Orestes’ Soliloquy is 11 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 ---------AA leaves · sound · come · they · joy · hour · exultingly · pass · young · raceA · raceA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hark! in the trembling leaves | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Mysterious whispers: hark! a rushing sound | 10 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Sweeps through yon twilight depth!--e’en now they come, | 10 | ···/······ |
| They throng to greet their guest! And who are they | 10 | ·········· |
| Rejoicing each with each in stately joy, | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| As a king’s children gather’d for the hour | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Of some high festival! Exultingly, | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| And kindred-like, and godlike, on they pass-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The glorious, wandering shapes! aged and young, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| Proud men and royal women! Lo! my race-- | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| My sire’s ancestral race! | 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.