The Myrtle Bough
Still green, along our sunny shore,The flowering myrtle waves,As when its fragrant boughs of yoreWere offer’d on the graves--The graves wherein our mighty menHad rest, unviolated then.
Still green it waves! as when the hearthWas sacred through the land;And fearless was the banquet’s mirth,And free the minstrel’s hand;And guests, with shining myrtle crown’d,Sent the wreath’d lyre and wine-cup round.
Still green! as when on holy groundThe tyrant’s blood was pour’d:Forget ye not what garlands boundThe young deliverer’s sword!Though earth may shroud Harmodius now,We still have sword and myrtle bough!
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
- deliverer n.
- One who delivers or rescues; a preserver.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Myrtle Bough 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, The Myrtle Bough, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/the-myrtle-bough.html, id L19294.
Form and metre
The Myrtle Bough is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABABCC shoreA · wavesB · yoreA · gravesB · menC · thenC
- 2 -A-ABB hearth · landA · mirth · handA · crown'dB · roundB
- 3 ABABCC groundA · pour'dB · boundA · swordB · nowC · boughC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Still green, along our sunny shore, | 8 | ··˘///˘· |
| The flowering myrtle waves, | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| As when its fragrant boughs of yore | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Were offer’d on the graves-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The graves wherein our mighty men | 8 | ····//˘· |
| Had rest, unviolated then. | 7 | ······· |
| Still green it waves! as when the hearth | 8 | ········ |
| Was sacred through the land; | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| And fearless was the banquet’s mirth, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And free the minstrel’s hand; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And guests, with shining myrtle crown’d, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Sent the wreath’d lyre and wine-cup round. | 8 | ········ |
| Still green! as when on holy ground | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The tyrant’s blood was pour’d: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Forget ye not what garlands bound | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| The young deliverer’s sword! | 7 | ··˘/˘˘· |
| Though earth may shroud Harmodius now, | 8 | ········ |
| We still have sword and myrtle bough! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
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.