Oracles
Let not any withering Fate,With her all too sombre thread,Flying from the Ivory Gate,Make thy soul discomforted:From the nobler Gate of Horn,Take the blessing of the morn.
Eyes bent full upon the goal,Whatso be the prize of it:Tireless feet, and crystal soul,With good heart, the salt of wit:These shall set thee in the clearSpirits' home and singing sphere.
Hush thy melancholy breath,Wailing after fair days gone:Make thee friends with kindly Death,That his long dominion,With a not too bitter thrall,Hold thee at the end of all.
Sorrow, angel of the night,Sorrow haughtily disdainsInvocation by our lightAgonies, and passing pains:Sorrow is but under pureCloven hearts their balm and cure.
And yet, what of the sorrowing years,Their clouds and difficult event?Here is a kindlier way than tears,A fairer way than discontent:The passionate remembrances,That wake at bidding of the air:Fancies, and dreams, and fragrances,That charmed us, when they were.
So breathed the hay, so the rose bloomed,Ah! what a thousand years ago!So long imprisoned and entombed,Out of our hearts the old joys flow:Peace! present sorrows: lie you still!You shall not grow to memories:The ancient hours live yet, to killThe sorry hour, that is.
Words in this poem
- withering a.
- Tending to wither; causing to shrink or fade.
- sombre n.
- Gloom; obscurity; duskiness; somberness.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- whatso pron.
- Whatsoever; whosoever; whatever; anything that.
- 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,]
- haughtily adv.
- In a haughty manner; arrogantly. [From Haughty.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Oracles 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, Oracles, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/oracles.html, id L20711.
Form and metre
Oracles is 40 lines in 6 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 fateA · threadB · gateA · discomfortedB · hornC · mornC
- 2 ABABCC goalA · itB · soulA · witB · clearC · sphereC
- 3 ABABCC breathA · goneB · deathA · dominionB · thrallC · allC
- 4 ABABCC nightA · disdainsB · lightA · painsB · pureC · cureC
- 5 ABAB---- yearsA · eventB · tearsA · discontentB · remembrances · air · fragrances · were
- 6 ABABCDCD bloomedA · agoB · entombedA · flowB · stillC · memoriesD · killC · isD
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Let not any withering Fate, | 8 | ··/˘/˘˘· |
| With her all too sombre thread, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Flying from the Ivory Gate, | 8 | /˘··/˘˘· |
| Make thy soul discomforted: | 7 | ···˘/˘˘ |
| From the nobler Gate of Horn, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Take the blessing of the morn. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Eyes bent full upon the goal, | 7 | ······· |
| Whatso be the prize of it: | 7 | /˘····· |
| Tireless feet, and crystal soul, | 8 | /˘˘··/˘· |
| With good heart, the salt of wit: | 7 | ······· |
| These shall set thee in the clear | 7 | ······· |
| Spirits' home and singing sphere. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Hush thy melancholy breath, | 7 | ··/˘·˘· |
| Wailing after fair days gone: | 7 | /˘····· |
| Make thee friends with kindly Death, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| That his long dominion, | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| With a not too bitter thrall, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Hold thee at the end of all. | 7 | ······· |
| Sorrow, angel of the night, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Sorrow haughtily disdains | 7 | /˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Invocation by our light | 8 | ·˘/˘·/˘· |
| Agonies, and passing pains: | 7 | /˘˘·/˘· |
| Sorrow is but under pure | 7 | /˘····· |
| Cloven hearts their balm and cure. | 7 | /˘····· |
| And yet, what of the sorrowing years, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Their clouds and difficult event? | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| Here is a kindlier way than tears, | 8 | ········ |
| A fairer way than discontent: | 8 | ·/˘··˘˘/ |
| The passionate remembrances, | 8 | ·/˘˘˘/˘˘ |
| That wake at bidding of the air: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Fancies, and dreams, and fragrances, | 8 | /˘···/˘˘ |
| That charmed us, when they were. | 7 | ··˘···· |
| So breathed the hay, so the rose bloomed, | 8 | ········ |
| Ah! what a thousand years ago! | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| So long imprisoned and entombed, | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| Out of our hearts the old joys flow: | 8 | ··/····· |
| Peace! present sorrows: lie you still! | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| You shall not grow to memories: | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| The ancient hours live yet, to kill | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| The sorry hour, that is. | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
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.