The Poetry of Southey
KEEN as an eagle whose flight towards the dim empyréanFearless of toil or fatigue ever royally wends!Vast in the cloud-coloured robes of the balm-breathing OrientLo! the grand Epic advances, unfolding the humanest truth.
Words in this poem
- royally adv.
- In a royal or kingly manner; like a king; as becomes a king.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Poetry of Southey is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems — Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #1381; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George Meredith, The Poetry of Southey, in Poems, Volume I (1851–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1381, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/meredith-poems/the-poetry-of-southey.html, id L13134.
Form and metre
The Poetry of Southey is 4 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 13.5 syllables.
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.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| KEEN as an eagle whose flight towards the dim empyréan | 13 | ···/˘········ |
| Fearless of toil or fatigue ever royally wends! | 11 | /˘···˘///˘· |
| Vast in the cloud-coloured robes of the balm-breathing Orient | 15 | ····/˘····/˘/˘· |
| Lo! the grand Epic advances, unfolding the humanest truth. | 15 | ···/˘˘/˘˘/˘·/˘· |
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.