To His Attendant: Book I., Ode Xxxviii
I hate the Persian’s costly pride:The wreaths with bands of linden tied--These, boy, delight me not;Nor where the lingering roses bideSeek thou for me the spot.For me be naught but myrtle twined--The modest myrtle, sweet to bindAlike thy brows and mine,While thus I quaff the bowl, reclinedBeneath th’ o’erarching vine.
Words in this poem
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
- quaff v. t.
- To drink with relish; to drink copiously of; to swallow in large draughts. [For quach, fr. Gael. & Ir. cuach a drinking cup; cf. L. caucus a drinking vessel. Cf. Quaigh.]
- reclined a.
- Falling or turned downward; reclinate.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To His Attendant: Book I., Ode Xxxviii 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, To His Attendant: Book I., Ode Xxxviii, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/to-his-attendant-book-i-ode-xxxviii.html, id L19320.
Form and metre
To His Attendant: Book I., Ode Xxxviii is 10 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes AABABCCDCD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 AABABCCDCD prideA · tiedA · notB · bideA · spotB · twinedC · bindC · mineD · reclinedC · vineD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I hate the Persian’s costly pride: | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The wreaths with bands of linden tied-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| These, boy, delight me not; | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Nor where the lingering roses bide | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Seek thou for me the spot. | 6 | ······ |
| For me be naught but myrtle twined-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The modest myrtle, sweet to bind | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Alike thy brows and mine, | 6 | ˘/···· |
| While thus I quaff the bowl, reclined | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Beneath th’ o’erarching vine. | 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.