Pervigilium
The gilded phaloi of the crocusesare thrusting at the spring air.Here is there naught of dead godsBut a procession of festival,A procession, O Giulio Romano,Fit for your spirit to dwell in.Dione, your nights are upon us.
The dew is upon the leaf.The night about us is restless.
Words in this poem
- 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
Pervigilium is in the public domain. This text is taken from Lustra of Ezra Pound, Project Gutenberg ebook #55564; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ezra Pound, Pervigilium, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/pervigilium.html, id L01287.
Form and metre
Pervigilium is 9 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is dactylic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 22% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in dactylic trimeter.
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.
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 dactylic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The gilded phaloi of the crocuses | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| are thrusting at the spring air. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Here is there naught of dead gods | 7 | ······· |
| But a procession of festival, | 9 | ··˘/˘·/˘˘ |
| A procession, O Giulio Romano, | 11 | ·˘/˘·/˘˘˘/· |
| Fit for your spirit to dwell in. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Dione, your nights are upon us. | 8 | /˘······ |
| The dew is upon the leaf. | 7 | ······· |
| The night about us is restless. | 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.