Orpheus and Eurydice III
Was not the menace indeed more silent? Ah, what care for labour andsorrow?Gods in the meadows of moly and amaranth surely might envy their deepsweet bedHere where the butterflies troubled the lilies of peace, and took nothought for the morrow,And golden-girdled bees made feast as over the lotus the soft sunspread.
Nearer, nearer the menace glided, out of the gorgeous gloom aroundthem,Out of the poppy-haunted shadows deep in the heart of the purplebrake;Till through the hush and the heat as they lay, and their own sweetlistless dreams enwound them,--Mailed and mottled with hues of the grape-bloom suddenly, quietly,glided the snake.
Words in this poem
- moly n.
- A fabulous herb of occult power, having a black root and white blossoms, said by Homer to have been given by Hermes to Ulysses to counteract the spells of Circe.
- amaranth n.
- An imaginary flower supposed never to fade.
- gorgeous a.
- Imposing through splendid or various colors; showy; fine; magnificent. [OF. gorgias beautiful, glorious, vain, luxurious; cf. OF. gorgias ruff, neck handkerchief, and F. gorge throat, and se pengorger to assume airs. Cf. Gorge, n.]
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- listless a.
- Having no desire or inclination; indifferent; heedless; spiritless. [OE. listles, lustles. See Lust.]
- mailed a.
- Protected by an external coat, or covering, of scales or plates.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Orpheus and Eurydice III 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, Orpheus and Eurydice III, in Collected Poems, Volume One (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #30501, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/noyes-collected/orpheus-and-eurydice-iii.html, id L25356.
Form and metre
Orpheus and Eurydice III is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic trimeter.
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 -A-B-A-B and · sorrowA · deep · bedB · no · morrowA · sun · spreadB
- 2 -A-B-A-B around · themA · purple · brakeB · sweet · themA · quietly · snakeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Was not the menace indeed more silent? Ah, what care for labour and | 17 | ···/˘˘/·/˘····/˘· |
| sorrow? | 2 | /˘ |
| Gods in the meadows of moly and amaranth surely might envy their deep | 19 | ···/··/˘·/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| sweet bed | 2 | ·· |
| Here where the butterflies troubled the lilies of peace, and took no | 16 | ···/˘·/˘·/˘····· |
| thought for the morrow, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| And golden-girdled bees made feast as over the lotus the soft sun | 16 | ·/˘/˘······/˘··· |
| spread. | 1 | · |
| Nearer, nearer the menace glided, out of the gorgeous gloom around | 17 | /˘/˘·/˘/˘···/˘··· |
| them, | 1 | · |
| Out of the poppy-haunted shadows deep in the heart of the purple | 17 | ···/˘/˘/·······/˘ |
| brake; | 1 | · |
| Till through the hush and the heat as they lay, and their own sweet | 14 | ·············· |
| listless dreams enwound them,-- | 6 | /˘···· |
| Mailed and mottled with hues of the grape-bloom suddenly, quietly, | 14 | ··/˘······/˘/˘ |
| glided the snake. | 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.