Passer Mortuus Est
Death devours all lovely things;Lesbia with her sparrowShares the darkness,--presentlyEvery bed is narrow.
Unremembered as old rainDries the sheer libation,And the little petulant handIs an annotation.
After all, my erstwhile dear,My no longer cherished,Need we say it was not love,Now that love is perished?
Words in this poem
- presently adv.
- At present; at this time; now.
- libation n.
- The act of pouring a liquid or liquor, usually wine, either on the ground or on a victim in sacrifice, in honor of some deity; also, the wine or liquid thus poured out. [L. libatio, fr. libare to take a little from anything, to taste, to pour out as an offering: cf. F. libation.]
- petulant a.
- Forward; pert; insolent; wanton. Burton. [L. petulans, -antis, prop., making slight attacks upon, from a lost dim. of petere to fall upon, to attack: cf. F. pétulant. See Petition.]
- annotation n.
- A note, added by way of comment, or explanation; -- usually in the plural; as, annotations on ancient authors, or on a word or a passage. [L. annotatio: cf. F. annotation.]
- erstwhile adv.
- Till then or now; heretofore; formerly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Passer Mortuus Est is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59167; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Passer Mortuus Est, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59167, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/millay-poems/passer-mortuus-est.html, id L24365.
Form and metre
Passer Mortuus Est is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 -A-A things · sparrowA · presently · narrowA
- 2 AA-A rainA · libationA · hand · annotationA
- 3 -A-A dear · cherishedA · love · perishedA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Death devours all lovely things; | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Lesbia with her sparrow | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Shares the darkness,--presently | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| Every bed is narrow. | 7 | /˘˘··/˘ |
| Unremembered as old rain | 7 | ······· |
| Dries the sheer libation, | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| And the little petulant hand | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Is an annotation. | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| After all, my erstwhile dear, | 7 | ····/·· |
| My no longer cherished, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Need we say it was not love, | 7 | ······· |
| Now that love is perished? | 6 | ····/˘ |
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.