For Some Poems by Matthew Arnold
Sweeping the chords of Hellas with firm hand,He wakes lost echoes from song's classic shore,And brings their crystal cadence back once moreTo touch the clouds and sorrows of a landWhere God's truth, cramped and fettered with a bandOf iron creeds, he cheers with golden loreOf heroes and the men that long beforeWrought the romance of ages yet unscanned.
Still does a cry through sad Valhalla goFor Balder, pierced with Lok's unhappy spray --For Balder, all but spared by Frea's charms;And still does art's imperial vista show,On the hushed sands of Oxus, far away,Young Sohrab dying in his father's arms.
Words in this poem
- classic a.
- Of or relating to the first class or rank, especially in literature or art. [L. classicus relating to the classes of the Roman people, and especially to the frist class; hence, of the first rank, superior, from classis class: cf. F. clas]
- fettered a.
- Seeming as if fettered, as the feet pf certain animals which bend backward, and appear unfit for walking.
- valhalla n.
- The palace of immortality, inhabited by the souls of heroes slain in battle. [Icel. valhöll, literally, hall of the slain; valr the slain (akin to AS. wæl, OHG. wal battlefield, wuol defeat, slaughter, AS. wol pestilence) + höll a royal h]
- balder n.
- The most beautiful and beloved of the gods; the god of peace; the son of Odin and Freya. [Written also Baldur.] [Icel. Baldr, akin to E. bold.]
- vista n.
- A view; especially, a view through or between intervening objects, as trees; a view or prospect through an avenue, or the like; hence, the trees or other objects that form the avenue. [It., sight, view, fr. vedere, p. p. visto, veduto, to see, fr. L. videre, visum. See View, Vision.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
For Some Poems by Matthew Arnold is in the public domain. This text is taken from Children of the Night, Project Gutenberg ebook #313; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Arlington Robinson, For Some Poems by Matthew Arnold, in The Children of the Night (1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #313, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/robinson-children-of-night/for-some-poems-by-matthew-arnold.html, id L07993.
Form and metre
For Some Poems by Matthew Arnold is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABBAABBA handA · shoreB · moreB · landA · bandA · loreB · beforeB · unscannedA
- 2 ABCABC goA · sprayB · charmsC · showA · awayB · armsC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sweeping the chords of Hellas with firm hand, | 10 | /˘········ |
| He wakes lost echoes from song's classic shore, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And brings their crystal cadence back once more | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| To touch the clouds and sorrows of a land | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Where God's truth, cramped and fettered with a band | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of iron creeds, he cheers with golden lore | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Of heroes and the men that long before | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Wrought the romance of ages yet unscanned. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Still does a cry through sad Valhalla go | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| For Balder, pierced with Lok's unhappy spray -- | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| For Balder, all but spared by Frea's charms; | 10 | ·/˘···˘··· |
| And still does art's imperial vista show, | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| On the hushed sands of Oxus, far away, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Young Sohrab dying in his father's arms. | 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.