Poem V

Prudentius (348–413) · 1905

iambic pentameter · 6 lines · from The Hymns of Prudentius

"Then thou dost weepeStill as thou burn'st, and the warm droppings creepeTo measure out thy length."

"So much the rather thou, Celestial Light,Shine inward, and the mind through all her powersIrradiate."

Words in this poem

irradiate v. t.
To throw rays of light upon; to illuminate; to brighten; to adorn with luster. [L. irradiatus, p. p. of irradiate. See In- in, and Radiate.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Poem V is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Hymns of Prudentius, Project Gutenberg ebook #14959; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Prudentius, Poem V, in The Hymns of Prudentius (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14959, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/prudentius-hymns/poem-v.html, id L23693.

Form and metre

Poem V is 6 lines in 2 stanzas of 3 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).

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. 1 AA- weepeA · creepeA · length
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.

LineSyl.Stress
"Then thou dost weepe4····
Still as thou burn'st, and the warm droppings creepe10·······/˘·
To measure out thy length."6·/˘···
"So much the rather thou, Celestial Light,10···/˘·˘/˘·
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers10·/˘······/
Irradiate."4˘/˘·

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.

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