Act V: Scene VIII
JOAD (to the Levite).Well, have they punished the temerityOf that ungodly woman?
LEVITE.Her death's atoned the horrors of her life.Jerusalem, for long her fury's prey,Is freed at length from her detested yoke.
JOAD.By her dread end, commensurate with her crimes,Learn, prince of Judah, never to forget,That there's a rigid Judge of kings in heaven;The orphan's Father, Sword of innocence.
Words in this poem
- temerity n.
- Unreasonable contempt of danger; extreme venturesomeness; rashness; as, the temerity of a commander in war. [L. temeritas, from temere by chance, rashly; perhaps akin to Skr. tamas darkness: cf. F. témérité.]
- ungodly a.
- Not godly; not having regard for God; disobedient to God; wicked; impious; sinful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act V: Scene VIII 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 VIII, in Athaliah: A Tragedy (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21967, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/racine-athaliah/act-v-scene-viii.html, id L26983.
Form and metre
Act V: Scene VIII is 12 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| JOAD (to the Levite). | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Well, have they punished the temerity | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Of that ungodly woman? | 7 | ··˘/˘/˘ |
| LEVITE. | 2 | /˘ |
| Her death's atoned the horrors of her life. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Jerusalem, for long her fury's prey, | 10 | ˘/˘˘···/˘· |
| Is freed at length from her detested yoke. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| JOAD. | 1 | · |
| By her dread end, commensurate with her crimes, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Learn, prince of Judah, never to forget, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| That there's a rigid Judge of kings in heaven; | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| The orphan's Father, Sword of innocence. | 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.