Echo-Song
In thy cavern-hall,Echo! art thou sleeping?By the fountain’s fallDreamy silence keeping?Yet one soft note borneFrom the shepherd’s horn,Wakes thee, Echo! into music leaping!--Strange, sweet Echo! into music leaping.
Then the woods rejoice,Then glad sounds are swellingFrom each sister-voiceRound thy rocky dwelling;And their sweetness fillsAll the hollow hills,With a thousand notes, of one life telling!--Softly mingled notes, of one life telling.
Echo! in my heartThus deep thoughts are lying,Silent and apart,Buried, yet undying;Till some gentle toneWakening haply one,Calls a thousand forth, like thee replying!--Strange, sweet Echo! even like thee replying.
Words in this poem
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
- undying a.
- Not dying; imperishable; unending; immortal; as, the undying souls of men.
- wakening n.
- The act of one who wakens; esp., the act of ceasing to sleep; an awakening.
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Echo-Song 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, Echo-Song, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/echo-song.html, id L19664.
Form and metre
Echo-Song is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCCBB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABABCCBB hallA · sleepingB · fallA · keepingB · borneC · hornC · leapingB · leapingB
- 2 ABABCCBB rejoiceA · swellingB · voiceA · dwellingB · fillsC · hillsC · tellingB · tellingB
- 3 ABAB--BB heartA · lyingB · apartA · undyingB · tone · one · replyingB · replyingB
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 trochaic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| In thy cavern-hall, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Echo! art thou sleeping? | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| By the fountain’s fall | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Dreamy silence keeping? | 6 | /˘/˘/˘ |
| Yet one soft note borne | 5 | ····· |
| From the shepherd’s horn, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Wakes thee, Echo! into music leaping! | 10 | ··/˘··/˘/˘ |
| --Strange, sweet Echo! into music leaping. | 10 | ··/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Then the woods rejoice, | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Then glad sounds are swelling | 6 | ····/˘ |
| From each sister-voice | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Round thy rocky dwelling; | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| And their sweetness fills | 5 | ··/˘· |
| All the hollow hills, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| With a thousand notes, of one life telling! | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| --Softly mingled notes, of one life telling. | 10 | /˘/˘····/˘ |
| Echo! in my heart | 5 | /˘··· |
| Thus deep thoughts are lying, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Silent and apart, | 5 | /˘·˘/ |
| Buried, yet undying; | 6 | /˘·˘/˘ |
| Till some gentle tone | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Wakening haply one, | 5 | /˘/˘· |
| Calls a thousand forth, like thee replying! | 10 | ··/˘···˘/˘ |
| --Strange, sweet Echo! even like thee replying. | 10 | ··/˘/··˘/˘ |
Notes from the edition 1
Notes from The Poems of Felicia Hemans (Project Gutenberg #66785), largely Mrs Hemans's own.
- Stanza 3, line 8 This song is in the possession of Mr Power.
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.