Scene II
ARISTAEUS, in pursuit of EURYDICE. Flee not from me, maiden!Lo, I am thy friend!Dearer far than life I hold thee.List, thou beauty-laden,To these prayers attend:Flee not, let my arms enfold thee!Neither wolf nor bear will grasp thee:That I am thy friend I've told thee:Stay thy course then; let me clasp thee!—Since thou'rt deaf and wilt not heed me,Since thou'rt still before me flying,While I follow panting, dying,Lend me wings, Love, wings to speed me!
Words in this poem
- enfold v. t.
- To infold. See Infold.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Scene II 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, Scene II, in Orfeo (1879), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18893, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poliziano-orfeo/scene-ii.html, id L26553.
Form and metre
Scene II is 13 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABCABCCCCCDDC. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABCABCCCCCDDC maidenA · friendB · theeC · ladenA · attendB · theeC · theeC · theeC · theeC · meC · flyingD · dyingD · meC
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| ARISTAEUS, in pursuit of EURYDICE. Flee not from me, maiden! | 17 | ····˘/·········/˘ |
| Lo, I am thy friend! | 5 | ····· |
| Dearer far than life I hold thee. | 8 | /˘······ |
| List, thou beauty-laden, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| To these prayers attend: | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Flee not, let my arms enfold thee! | 8 | ·····˘/· |
| Neither wolf nor bear will grasp thee: | 8 | /˘······ |
| That I am thy friend I've told thee: | 8 | ········ |
| Stay thy course then; let me clasp thee!— | 8 | ········ |
| Since thou'rt deaf and wilt not heed me, | 8 | ········ |
| Since thou'rt still before me flying, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| While I follow panting, dying, | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Lend me wings, Love, wings to speed me! | 8 | ········ |
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.