Act V: Scene VII
JOAS (having descended from his throne)God, who behold'st my trouble, my affliction,O turn her maledictions far from me,And never suffer their accomplishment.Sooner than Joas forget Thee, may he die!
JOAD.Call forth the people, let them see their king,That in his power they may renew their faith.King, people, priests, come, full of gratitude,Confirm the covenant with Jacob's God:And, struck with sacred awe at our ill deeds,Engage ourselves anew to Him with oaths.Abner, resume your place beside your prince.
Words in this poem
- resume n.
- A summing up; a condensed statement; an abridgment or brief recapitulation. [F. See Resume.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act V: Scene VII is in the public domain. This text is taken from Athaliah: A Tragedy, Project Gutenberg ebook #21967, the J. Donkersley 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: Jean Racine, Act V: Scene VII, in Athaliah: A Tragedy (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21967, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/racine-athaliah/act-v-scene-vii.html, id L26982.
Form and metre
Act V: Scene VII is 13 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 AAB-B throneA · afflictionA · meB · accomplishment · dieB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| JOAS (having descended from his throne) | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘··· |
| God, who behold'st my trouble, my affliction, | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| O turn her maledictions far from me, | 10 | ·········· |
| And never suffer their accomplishment. | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Sooner than Joas forget Thee, may he die! | 10 | /˘··˘/···· |
| JOAD. | 1 | · |
| Call forth the people, let them see their king, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| That in his power they may renew their faith. | 10 | ···/··˘/·· |
| King, people, priests, come, full of gratitude, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Confirm the covenant with Jacob's God: | 10 | ˘/·/˘˘·/˘· |
| And, struck with sacred awe at our ill deeds, | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| Engage ourselves anew to Him with oaths. | 10 | ˘/˘/˘/···· |
| Abner, resume your place beside your prince. | 10 | /˘˘/··˘/·· |
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.