Art (Imitated from De Banville and Gautier) I
Yes! Beauty still rebels!Our dreams like clouds disperse:She dwellsIn agate, marble, verse.
No false constraint be thine!But, for right walking, chooseThe fine,The strict cothurnus, Muse.
Vainly ye seek to escapeThe toil! The yielding phraseYe shapeIs clay, not chrysoprase.
And all in vain ye scornThat seeming ease which ne'erWas bornOf aught but love and care.
Take up the sculptor's tool!Recall the gods that dieTo ruleIn Parian o'er the sky.
For Beauty still rebels!Our dreams like clouds disperse:She dwellsIn agate, marble, verse.
Words in this poem
- chrysoprase n.
- An apple-green variety of chalcedony, colored by nickel. It has a dull flinty luster, and is sometimes used in jewelry.
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Art (Imitated from De Banville and Gautier) I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Collected Poems: Volume One, Project Gutenberg ebook #30501; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Noyes, Art (Imitated from De Banville and Gautier) I, in Collected Poems, Volume One (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #30501, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/noyes-collected/art-imitated-from-de-banville-and-gautier-i.html, id L21391.
Form and metre
Art (Imitated from De Banville and Gautier) I is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABAB rebelsA · disperseB · dwellsA · verseB
- 2 ABAB thineA · chooseB · fineA · museB
- 3 ABAB escapeA · phraseB · shapeA · chrysopraseB
- 4 ABAB scornA · ne'erB · bornA · careB
- 5 ABAB toolA · dieB · ruleA · skyB
- 6 ABAB rebelsA · disperseB · dwellsA · verseB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Yes! Beauty still rebels! | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Our dreams like clouds disperse: | 6 | /···˘/ |
| She dwells | 2 | ·· |
| In agate, marble, verse. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| No false constraint be thine! | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| But, for right walking, choose | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The fine, | 2 | ·· |
| The strict cothurnus, Muse. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Vainly ye seek to escape | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| The toil! The yielding phrase | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Ye shape | 2 | ·· |
| Is clay, not chrysoprase. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| And all in vain ye scorn | 6 | ······ |
| That seeming ease which ne'er | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Was born | 2 | ·· |
| Of aught but love and care. | 6 | ······ |
| Take up the sculptor's tool! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Recall the gods that die | 6 | /····· |
| To rule | 2 | ·· |
| In Parian o'er the sky. | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| For Beauty still rebels! | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Our dreams like clouds disperse: | 6 | /···˘/ |
| She dwells | 2 | ·· |
| In agate, marble, verse. | 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.