O Ye Voices!
O ye voices round my own hearth singing,As the winds of May to memory sweet!Might I yet return, a worn heart bringing,Would those vernal tones the wanderer greet,Once again?
Never, never! Spring hath smiled and partedOft since then your fond farewell was said;O’er the green turf of the gentle-heartedSummer’s hand the rose-leaves may have shed,Oft again!
Or if still around my heart ye linger,Yet, sweet voices! there must change have come:Years have quell’d the free soul of the singer,Vernal tones shall greet the wanderer homeNe’er again!
Words in this poem
- quell v. t.
- To take the life of; to kill. [OE. quellen to kill, AS. cwellan, causative of cwelan to die; akin to OHG. quellen to torment, Icel. kvelja. See Quail to cower.]
- 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
O Ye Voices! 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, O Ye Voices!, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/o-ye-voices.html, id L19650.
Form and metre
O Ye Voices! is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABAB- singingA · sweetB · bringingA · greetB · again
- 2 ABAB- partedA · saidB · heartedA · shedB · again
- 3 ABAB- lingerA · comeB · singerA · homeB · again
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O ye voices round my own hearth singing, | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| As the winds of May to memory sweet! | 10 | ······/˘˘· |
| Might I yet return, a worn heart bringing, | 10 | ···˘/···/˘ |
| Would those vernal tones the wanderer greet, | 10 | ··/˘··/˘˘· |
| Once again? | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Never, never! Spring hath smiled and parted | 10 | /˘/˘····/˘ |
| Oft since then your fond farewell was said; | 9 | ······/·· |
| O’er the green turf of the gentle-hearted | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| Summer’s hand the rose-leaves may have shed, | 9 | /˘······· |
| Oft again! | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Or if still around my heart ye linger, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Yet, sweet voices! there must change have come: | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Years have quell’d the free soul of the singer, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Vernal tones shall greet the wanderer home | 10 | /˘····/˘˘· |
| Ne’er again! | 3 | ·˘/ |
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.