Translation from the Medea of Euripides
The rites deriv'd from ancient days,With thoughtless reverence we praise;The rites that taught us to combineThe joys of musick and of wine,And bade the feast, and song, and bowlO'erfill the saturated soul:But ne'er the flute or lyre appliedTo cheer despair, or soften pride;Nor call'd them to the gloomy cellsWhere want repines and vengeance swells;Where hate sits musing to betray,And murder meditates his prey.To dens of guilt and shades of care,Ye sons of melody repair,Nor deign the festive dome to cloyWith superfluities of joy.Ah! little needs the minstrel's powerTo speed the light convivial hour.The board, with varied plenty crown'd,May spare the luxuries of sound.
Words in this poem
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
- deign v. t.
- To esteem worthy; to consider worth notice; -- opposed to disdain. [OE. deinen, deignen, OF. degner, deigner, daigner, F. daigner, fr. L. dignari to deem worthy, deign, fr. dignus worthy; akin to decere to be fitting. See Decent]
- cloy v. t.
- To fill or choke up; to stop up; to clog. [OE. cloer to nail up, F. clouer, fr. OF. clo nail, F. clou, fr. L. clavus nail. Cf. 3d Clove.]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Translation from the Medea of Euripides is in the public domain. This text is taken from Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 (The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes, 1825), Project Gutenberg ebook #10835; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Samuel Johnson, Translation from the Medea of Euripides, in Poems (1825), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10835, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-poems/translation-from-the-medea-of-euripides.html, id L27158.
Form and metre
Translation from the Medea of Euripides is 20 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ daysA · praiseA · combineB · wineB · bowlC · soulC · appliedD · prideD · cellsE · swellsE · betrayF · preyF · careG · repairG · cloyH · joyH · powerI · hourI · crown'dJ · soundJ
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The rites deriv'd from ancient days, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| With thoughtless reverence we praise; | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| The rites that taught us to combine | 8 | ······/˘ |
| The joys of musick and of wine, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And bade the feast, and song, and bowl | 8 | ········ |
| O'erfill the saturated soul: | 8 | ···/˘·˘· |
| But ne'er the flute or lyre applied | 8 | ······˘/ |
| To cheer despair, or soften pride; | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Nor call'd them to the gloomy cells | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Where want repines and vengeance swells; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Where hate sits musing to betray, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And murder meditates his prey. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To dens of guilt and shades of care, | 8 | ········ |
| Ye sons of melody repair, | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| Nor deign the festive dome to cloy | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With superfluities of joy. | 6 | ······ |
| Ah! little needs the minstrel's power | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| To speed the light convivial hour. | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| The board, with varied plenty crown'd, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| May spare the luxuries of sound. | 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.