The Venus of Milo
Backward she leans, as when the rose unblownSlides white from its warm sheath some morn in May!Under the sloping waist, aslant, her zoneClings as it slips in tender disarray;One knee, out-thrust a little, keeps it soLingering ere it fall; her lovely faceGazes as o'er her own Eternity!Those armless radiant shoulders, long agoPerchance held arms out wide with yearning graceFor Adon by the blue Sicilian sea.
No; thou eternal fount of these poor gleams,Bright axle-star of the wheeling temporal skies,Daughter of blood and foam and deathless dreams,Mother of flying Love that never dies,To thee, the topmost and consummate flower,The last harmonic height, our dull desiresAnd our tired souls in dreary discord climb;The flesh forgets its pale and wandering fires;We gaze through heaven as from an ivory towerShining upon the last dark shores of Time.
White culmination of the dreams of earth,Thy splendour beacons to a loftier goal,Where, slipping earthward from the great new birth,The shadowy senses leave the essential soul!Oh, naked loveliness, not yet revealed,A moment hence that falling robe will showNo prophecy like this, this great new dawn,The bare bright breasts, each like a soft white shield,And the firm body like a slope of snowOut of the slipping dream-stuff half withdrawn.
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- aslant adv.
- Toward one side; in a slanting direction; obliquely. [Pref. a- + slant.]
- disarray v. t.
- To throw into disorder; to break the array of. [Pref. dis- + array, v.: cf. OF. desarroyer, desarreier.]
- armless a.
- Without any arm or branch.
- sicilian a.
- Of or pertaining to Sicily or its inhabitants. Sicilian vespers, the great massacre of the French in Sicily, in the year 1282, on the evening of Easter Monday, at the hour of vespers.
- wheeling n.
- The act of conveying anything, or traveling, on wheels, or in a wheeled vehicle.
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
- culmination n.
- The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavently body; passage across the meridian; transit. [Cf. F.culmination]
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
- earthward adv.
- Toward the earth; -- opposed to heavenward or skyward.
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Venus of Milo 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, The Venus of Milo, in Collected Poems, Volume One (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #30501, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/noyes-collected/the-venus-of-milo.html, id L21474.
Form and metre
The Venus of Milo is 30 lines in 3 stanzas of 10 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABCD-CD- unblownA · mayB · zoneA · disarrayB · soC · faceD · eternity · agoC · graceD · sea
- 2 ABABCDEDCE gleamsA · skiesB · dreamsA · diesB · flowerC · desiresD · climbE · firesD · towerC · timeE
- 3 ABABCDECDE earthA · goalB · birthA · soulB · revealedC · showD · dawnE · shieldC · snowD · withdrawnE
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Backward she leans, as when the rose unblown | 10 | /˘········ |
| Slides white from its warm sheath some morn in May! | 10 | ·········· |
| Under the sloping waist, aslant, her zone | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Clings as it slips in tender disarray; | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| One knee, out-thrust a little, keeps it so | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Lingering ere it fall; her lovely face | 10 | /˘˘····/˘· |
| Gazes as o'er her own Eternity! | 10 | /˘····˘/˘˘ |
| Those armless radiant shoulders, long ago | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Perchance held arms out wide with yearning grace | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| For Adon by the blue Sicilian sea. | 10 | ·˘/···˘/˘· |
| No; thou eternal fount of these poor gleams, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Bright axle-star of the wheeling temporal skies, | 11 | ·/˘···/˘/˘· |
| Daughter of blood and foam and deathless dreams, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Mother of flying Love that never dies, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| To thee, the topmost and consummate flower, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘˘/˘ |
| The last harmonic height, our dull desires | 11 | ··˘/˘·/·˘/˘ |
| And our tired souls in dreary discord climb; | 10 | ·//··/˘/˘· |
| The flesh forgets its pale and wandering fires; | 10 | ··˘/···/˘/ |
| We gaze through heaven as from an ivory tower | 10 | ···/···/˘/ |
| Shining upon the last dark shores of Time. | 10 | /˘········ |
| White culmination of the dreams of earth, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Thy splendour beacons to a loftier goal, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Where, slipping earthward from the great new birth, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The shadowy senses leave the essential soul! | 11 | ·/˘/˘··˘/˘· |
| Oh, naked loveliness, not yet revealed, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘··˘/ |
| A moment hence that falling robe will show | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| No prophecy like this, this great new dawn, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| The bare bright breasts, each like a soft white shield, | 10 | ·········· |
| And the firm body like a slope of snow | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Out of the slipping dream-stuff half withdrawn. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
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.