Celtic Speech
Never forgetful silence fall on thee,Nor younger voices overtake thee,Nor echoes from thine ancient hills forsake thee;Old music heard by Mona of the sea:And where with moving melodies there break theePastoral Conway, venerable Dee.
Like music lives, nor may that music die,Still in the far, fair Gaelic places:The speech, so wistful with its kindly graces,Holy Croagh Patrick knows, and holy Hy:The speech, that wakes the soul in withered faces,And wakes remembrance of great things gone by.
Like music by the desolate Land's EndMournful forgetfulness hath broken:No more words kindred to the winds are spoken,Where upon iron cliffs whole seas expendThat strength, whereof the unalterable tokenRemains wild music, even to the world's end.
Words in this poem
- forgetful a.
- Apt to forget; easily losing remembrance; as, a forgetful man should use helps to strengthen his memory.
- mona n.
- A small, handsome, long-tailed West American monkey (Cercopithecus mona). The body is dark olive, with a spot of white on the haunches. [CF. Sp. & Pg. mona, fem. of mono a monkey, ape.]
- gaelic a.
- Of or pertaining to the Gael, esp. to the Celtic Highlanders of Scotland; as, the Gaelic language. [Gael. Gàidhealach, Gaelach, from Gàidheal, Gael, a Scotch Highlander.]
- wistful a.
- Longing; wishful; desirous. [For wishful; perhaps influenced by wistly, which is probably corrupted from OE. wisly certainly (from Icel. viss certain, akin to E. wit). See Wish.]
- whereof adv.
- Of which; of whom; formerly, also, with which; -- used relatively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Celtic Speech is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #66520; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lionel Johnson, Celtic Speech, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/celtic-speech.html, id L12491.
Form and metre
Celtic Speech is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBABA, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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.
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 AAAAAA theeA · theeA · theeA · seaA · theeA · deeA
- 2 ABBABA dieA · placesB · gracesB · hyA · facesB · byA
- 3 ABBABA endA · brokenB · spokenB · expendA · tokenB · endA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Never forgetful silence fall on thee, | 10 | /˘˘/˘/˘··· |
| Nor younger voices overtake thee, | 9 | ·/˘/˘/˘·· |
| Nor echoes from thine ancient hills forsake thee; | 11 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/· |
| Old music heard by Mona of the sea: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And where with moving melodies there break thee | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Pastoral Conway, venerable Dee. | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘˘˘· |
| Like music lives, nor may that music die, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Still in the far, fair Gaelic places: | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| The speech, so wistful with its kindly graces, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Holy Croagh Patrick knows, and holy Hy: | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| The speech, that wakes the soul in withered faces, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| And wakes remembrance of great things gone by. | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Like music by the desolate Land's End | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Mournful forgetfulness hath broken: | 9 | /˘˘/˘˘·/˘ |
| No more words kindred to the winds are spoken, | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Where upon iron cliffs whole seas expend | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| That strength, whereof the unalterable token | 11 | ·····˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Remains wild music, even to the world's end. | 10 | ˘/·/˘/···· |
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.