Vicisti, Galilæe
"The shrines are dust, the gods are dead,"They cried in ancient Rome!"Ah yet, the Idalian rose is red,And bright the Paphian foam:For all your Galilæan tearsWe turn to her," men say ...But we, we hasten thro' the yearsTo our own yesterday.
Thro' all the thousand years ye needTo make the lost so fair,Before ye can award His meedOf perfect praise and prayer!Ye liberated souls, the crownIs yours; and yet, some fewCan hail, as this great Cross goes downIts distant triumph, too.
Poor scornful Lilliputian souls,And are ye still too proudTo risk your little aureolesBy kneeling with the crowd?Do ye still dream ye "stand alone"So fearless and so strong?To-day we claim the rebels' throneAnd leave you with the throng.
Yes, He has conquered! You at leastThe "van-guard" leaves behindTo croon old tales of king and priestIn the ingles of mankind:The breast of Aphrodite glows,Apollo's face is fair;But O, the world's wide anguish knowsNo Apollonian prayer.
Not ours to scorn the first white gleamOf beauty on this earth,The clouds of dawn, the nectarous dream,The gods of simpler birth;But, as ye praise them, your own cryIs fraught with deeper pain,And the Compassionate ye denyReturns, returns again.
O, worshippers of the beautiful,Is this the end then, this,--That ye can only see the skullBeneath the face of bliss?No monk in the dark years ye scornSo barren a pathway trodAs ye who, ceasing not to mourn,Deny the mourner's God.
And, while ye scoff, on every sideGreat hints of Him go by,--Souls that are hourly crucifiedOn some new Calvary!O, tortured faces, white and meek,Half seen amidst the crowd,Grey suffering lips that never speak,The Glory in the Cloud!
In flower and dust, in chaff and grain,He binds Himself and dies!We live by His eternal pain,His hourly sacrifice;The limits of our mortal lifeAre His. The whisper thrillsUnder the sea's perpetual strife,And through the sunburnt hills.
Darkly, as in a glass, our sightStill gropes thro' Time and Space:We cannot see the Light of LightWith angels, face to face:Only the tale His martyrs tellAround the dark earth ringsHe died and He went down to hellAnd lives--the King of Kings!
And, while ye scoff, from shore to shore,From sea to moaning sea,Lama sabacthani!The heavens are like a scroll unfurled,The writing flames above--This is the King of all the worldUpon His Cross of Love.
Words in this poem 15
- idalian a.
- Of or pertaining to Idalium, a mountain city in Cyprus, or to Venus, to whom it was sacred.
- paphian a.
- Of or pertaining to Paphos, an ancient city of Cyprus, having a celebrated temple of Venus; hence, pertaining to Venus, or her rites.
- award v. t.
- To give by sentence or judicial determination; to assign or apportion, after careful regard to the nature of the case; to adjudge; as, the arbitrators awarded damages to the complainant. [OF. eswarder to look at, consider, decide, judge; es (L. ex) + warder, garder, to observe, take heed, keep, fr. OHG. wart to watch, guard. See Ward.]
- meed v. t.
- To reward; to repay. Waytt.
- lilliputian n.
- One belonging to a very diminutive race described in Swift's
- croon v. i.
- To make a continuous hollow moan, as cattle do when in pain.
- aphrodite n.
- The Greek goddess of love, corresponding to the Venus of the Romans.
- apollonian a.
- Of, pertaining to, or resembling, Apollo.
- fraught n.
- A freight; a cargo. [OE.fraight, fraght; akin to Dan. fragt, Sw. frakt, D. vracht, G. fracht, cf. OHG. fr merit, reward; perh. from corresponding to E. for + The root of E. own. Cf.]
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
- hourly a.
- Happening or done every hour; occurring hour by hour; frequent; often repeated; renewed hour by hour; continual.
- calvary n.
- The place where Christ was crucified, on a small hill outside of Jerusalem. Luke xxiii. 33. [L. calvaria a bare skull, fr. calva the scalp without hair. fr. calvus bald; cf. F. calvaire.]
- amidst prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Vicisti, Galilæe 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, Vicisti, Galilæe, in Collected Poems, Volume One (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #30501, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/noyes-collected/vicisti-galil-e.html, id L21500.
Form and metre
Vicisti, Galilæe is 79 lines in 10 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, complete in 7 of its 10 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic 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 ABABCDCD deadA · romeB · redA · foamB · tearsC · sayD · yearsC · yesterdayD
- 2 ABABCDCD needA · fairB · meedA · prayerB · crownC · fewD · downC · tooD
- 3 ABABCDCD soulsA · proudB · aureolesA · crowdB · aloneC · strongD · throneC · throngD
- 4 ABABCDCD leastA · behindB · priestA · mankindB · glowsC · fairD · knowsC · prayerD
- 5 ABABCDCD gleamA · earthB · dreamA · birthB · cryC · painD · denyC · againD
- 6 ABABCDCD beautifulA · thisB · skullA · blissB · scornC · trodD · mournC · godD
- 7 A-A-BCBC sideA · by · crucifiedA · calvary · meekB · crowdC · speakB · cloudC
- 8 A-A-BCBC grainA · dies · painA · sacrifice · lifeB · thrillsC · strifeB · hillsC
- 9 ABABCDCD sightA · spaceB · lightA · faceB · tellC · ringsD · hellC · kingsD
- 10 ---ABAB shore · sea · sabacthani · unfurledA · aboveB · worldA · loveB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "The shrines are dust, the gods are dead," | 8 | ········ |
| They cried in ancient Rome! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| "Ah yet, the Idalian rose is red, | 10 | ···˘/˘˘··· |
| And bright the Paphian foam: | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| For all your Galilæan tears | 7 | ······· |
| We turn to her," men say ... | 6 | ······ |
| But we, we hasten thro' the years | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To our own yesterday. | 7 | ·/˘·/˘˘ |
| Thro' all the thousand years ye need | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To make the lost so fair, | 6 | ······ |
| Before ye can award His meed | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Of perfect praise and prayer! | 6 | ·˘/··· |
| Ye liberated souls, the crown | 8 | ·/˘·˘··· |
| Is yours; and yet, some few | 6 | ······ |
| Can hail, as this great Cross goes down | 8 | ········ |
| Its distant triumph, too. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Poor scornful Lilliputian souls, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| And are ye still too proud | 6 | ······ |
| To risk your little aureoles | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| By kneeling with the crowd? | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Do ye still dream ye "stand alone" | 8 | ······˘/ |
| So fearless and so strong? | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| To-day we claim the rebels' throne | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And leave you with the throng. | 6 | ······ |
| Yes, He has conquered! You at least | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The "van-guard" leaves behind | 6 | ······ |
| To croon old tales of king and priest | 8 | ········ |
| In the ingles of mankind: | 7 | ··/˘·// |
| The breast of Aphrodite glows, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Apollo's face is fair; | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| But O, the world's wide anguish knows | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| No Apollonian prayer. | 7 | ··˘/˘˘· |
| Not ours to scorn the first white gleam | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Of beauty on this earth, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The clouds of dawn, the nectarous dream, | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| The gods of simpler birth; | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| But, as ye praise them, your own cry | 8 | ········ |
| Is fraught with deeper pain, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And the Compassionate ye deny | 9 | ··˘/˘˘·˘/ |
| Returns, returns again. | 6 | ˘/˘/˘/ |
| O, worshippers of the beautiful, | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘˘ |
| Is this the end then, this,-- | 6 | ······ |
| That ye can only see the skull | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Beneath the face of bliss? | 6 | ······ |
| No monk in the dark years ye scorn | 8 | ········ |
| So barren a pathway trod | 7 | ·/˘·/·· |
| As ye who, ceasing not to mourn, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Deny the mourner's God. | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| And, while ye scoff, on every side | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| Great hints of Him go by,-- | 6 | ······ |
| Souls that are hourly crucified | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| On some new Calvary! | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| O, tortured faces, white and meek, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Half seen amidst the crowd, | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Grey suffering lips that never speak, | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
| The Glory in the Cloud! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| In flower and dust, in chaff and grain, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| He binds Himself and dies! | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| We live by His eternal pain, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| His hourly sacrifice; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| The limits of our mortal life | 9 | ·/˘·/˘/˘· |
| Are His. The whisper thrills | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Under the sea's perpetual strife, | 9 | ····˘/˘˘· |
| And through the sunburnt hills. | 6 | ······ |
| Darkly, as in a glass, our sight | 9 | /˘····/˘· |
| Still gropes thro' Time and Space: | 6 | ······ |
| We cannot see the Light of Light | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| With angels, face to face: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Only the tale His martyrs tell | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Around the dark earth rings | 6 | ······ |
| He died and He went down to hell | 8 | ········ |
| And lives--the King of Kings! | 6 | ······ |
| And, while ye scoff, from shore to shore, | 8 | ········ |
| From sea to moaning sea, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Lama sabacthani! | 6 | /˘···· |
| The heavens are like a scroll unfurled, | 9 | ·/˘····˘/ |
| The writing flames above-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| This is the King of all the world | 8 | ········ |
| Upon His Cross of Love. | 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.