Orpheus to Beasts I
Here, here, oh here! EURIDICE,Here was she slaine;Her soule 'still'd through a veine:The gods knew lesseThat time divinitie,Then ev'n, ev'n theseOf brutishnesse.
About this text
Orpheus to Beasts I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Lucasta, Project Gutenberg ebook #703; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Richard Lovelace, Orpheus to Beasts I, in Lucasta (1649), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #703, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lovelace-lucasta/orpheus-to-beasts-i.html, id L12992.
Form and metre
Orpheus to Beasts I is 7 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.0 syllables.
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 ---A--A euridice · slaine · veine · lesseA · divinitie · these · brutishnesseA
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Here, here, oh here! EURIDICE, | 7 | ······· |
| Here was she slaine; | 4 | ···· |
| Her soule 'still'd through a veine: | 6 | ······ |
| The gods knew lesse | 4 | ···· |
| That time divinitie, | 6 | ······ |
| Then ev'n, ev'n these | 4 | ···· |
| Of brutishnesse. | 4 | ···· |
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.