Lot of Man and Woman Compared by Iphigenia: Longing of Orestes for Repose IV
One draught from Lethe’s flood!--reach me one draught,One last cool goblet fill’d with dewy peace!Soon will the spasm of life departing leaveMy bosom free! Soon shall my spirit flowAlong the deep waves of forgetfulness,Calmly and silently! away to you,Ye dead! Ye dwellers of the eternal cloud!Take home the son of earth, and let him steepHis o’erworn senses in your dim reposeFor evermore.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lot of Man and Woman Compared by Iphigenia: Longing of Orestes for Repose IV 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, Lot of Man and Woman Compared by Iphigenia: Longing of Orestes for Repose IV, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/lot-of-man-and-woman-compared-by-iphigenia-longing-of-oreste.html, id L19792.
Form and metre
Lot of Man and Woman Compared by Iphigenia: Longing of Orestes for Repose IV is 10 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| One draught from Lethe’s flood!--reach me one draught, | 9 | ········· |
| One last cool goblet fill’d with dewy peace! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Soon will the spasm of life departing leave | 11 | ···/˘··˘/˘· |
| My bosom free! Soon shall my spirit flow | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Along the deep waves of forgetfulness, | 10 | ˘/····˘/˘˘ |
| Calmly and silently! away to you, | 10 | /˘·/˘˘˘/·· |
| Ye dead! Ye dwellers of the eternal cloud! | 11 | ···/˘··˘/˘· |
| Take home the son of earth, and let him steep | 10 | ·········· |
| His o’erworn senses in your dim repose | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| For evermore. | 4 | ·/˘· |
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.