Heraclitus
They told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead,They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed.I wept as I remember’d how often you and IHad tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.
And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest,A handful of grey ashes, long, long ago at rest,Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake;For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.
Words in this poem
- handful n.
- As much as the hand will grasp or contain. [AS. handfull.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Heraclitus is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William (johnson) Cory, Heraclitus, in Poems (1823–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-william-johnson-cory/heraclitus.html, id L16233.
Form and metre
Heraclitus is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%). 84% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.2 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 AABB deadA · shedA · iB · skyB
- 2 AABB guestA · restA · awakeB · takeB
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| They told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead, | 13 | ············· |
| They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed. | 14 | ···/˘····/˘··· |
| I wept as I remember’d how often you and I | 13 | ····˘/˘·/˘··· |
| Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky. | 13 | ·/···/˘······ |
| And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest, | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| A handful of grey ashes, long, long ago at rest, | 13 | ·/···/˘··˘/·· |
| Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake; | 13 | ···/˘/˘·/˘˘˘/ |
| For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take. | 14 | ···/˘·˘/···/˘· |
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.