Prologue
MERCURY announces the show. Ho, silence! Listen! There was once a hind,Son of Apollo, Aristaeus hight,Who loved with so untamed and fierce a mindEurydice, the wife of Orpheus wight,That chasing her one day with will unkindHe wrought her cruel death in love's despite;For, as she fled toward the mere hard by,A serpent stung her, and she had to die.
Now Orpheus, singing, brought her back from hell,But could not keep the law the fates ordain:Poor wretch, he backward turned and broke the spell;So that once more from him his love was ta'en.Therefore he would no more with women dwell,And in the end by women he was slain.
A SHEPHERD. Nay, listen, friends! Fair auspices are given,Since Mercury to earth hath come from heaven.
Words in this poem
- hight v. t.
- To be called or named. [OE. heiten, highten, haten, hoten; also hight, hatte, hette, is called, was called, AS. hatan to call, name, be called, to command, promise; also hatte is calle]
- orpheus n.
- The famous mythic Thracian poet, son of the Muse Calliope, and husband of Eurydice. He is reputed to have had power to entrance beasts and inanimate objects by the music of his lyre.
- wight n.
- A whit; a bit; a jot. [OE. wight, wiht, a wight, a whit, AS. wiht, wuht, a creature, a thing; skin to D. wicht a child, OS. & OHG. wiht a creature, thing, G. wicht a creature, Icel. v]
- unkind a.
- Having no race or kindred; childless. [See Kin kindred.]
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Prologue is in the public domain. This text is taken from The 'Orfeo' of Poliziano, tr. John Addington Symonds (first printed in Sketches and Studies in Italy, 1879; this text is Horatio F. Brown's 1898 combined reprint), Project Gutenberg ebook #18893, the John Addington Symonds translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Angelo Poliziano, Prologue, in Orfeo (1879), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18893, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poliziano-orfeo/prologue.html, id L26551.
Form and metre
Prologue is 16 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%).
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 ABABABCC hindA · hightB · mindA · wightB · unkindA · despiteB · byC · dieC
- 2 ABA-AB hellA · ordainB · spellA · ta'en · dwellA · slainB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| MERCURY announces the show. Ho, silence! Listen! There was once a hind, | 17 | /˘˘/˘···/˘/˘····· |
| Son of Apollo, Aristaeus hight, | 9 | ··˘/˘···· |
| Who loved with so untamed and fierce a mind | 10 | ·········· |
| Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus wight, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That chasing her one day with will unkind | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| He wrought her cruel death in love's despite; | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| For, as she fled toward the mere hard by, | 10 | ·········· |
| A serpent stung her, and she had to die. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Now Orpheus, singing, brought her back from hell, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| But could not keep the law the fates ordain: | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Poor wretch, he backward turned and broke the spell; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| So that once more from him his love was ta'en. | 10 | ·········· |
| Therefore he would no more with women dwell, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And in the end by women he was slain. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A SHEPHERD. Nay, listen, friends! Fair auspices are given, | 12 | ·/˘·/˘··/˘·/ |
| Since Mercury to earth hath come from heaven. | 11 | ·/˘˘·····/˘ |
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