Villanelle of Change
Since Persia fell at Marathon,The yellow years have gathered fast:Long centuries have come and gone.
And yet (they say) the place will donA phantom fury of the past,Since Persia fell at Marathon;
And as of old, when HeliconTrembled and swayed with rapture vast(Long centuries have come and gone),
This ancient plain, when night comes on,Shakes to a ghostly battle-blast,Since Persia fell at Marathon.
But into soundless AcheronThe glory of Greek shame was cast:Long centuries have come and gone,
The suns of Hellas have all shone,The first has fallen to the last: --Since Persia fell at Marathon,Long centuries have come and gone.
Words in this poem
- helicon n.
- A mountain in Boeotia, in Greece, supposed by the Greeks to be the residence of Apollo and the Muses.
- swayed a.
- Bent down, and hollow in the back; sway-backed; -- said of a horse.
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
- soundless a.
- Not capable of being sounded or fathomed; unfathomable.
- acheron n.
- A river in the Nether World or infernal regions; also, the infernal regions themselves. By some of the English poets it was supposed to be a flaming lake or gulf.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Villanelle of Change 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, Villanelle of Change, in The Children of the Night (1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #313, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/robinson-children-of-night/villanelle-of-change.html, id L07983.
Form and metre
Villanelle of Change is 19 lines in 6 stanzas. The commonest rhyme scheme is ABA, in 2 of the 6 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AB- marathonA · fastB · gone
- 2 ABA donA · pastB · marathonA
- 3 AB- heliconA · vastB · gone
- 4 ABA onA · blastB · marathonA
- 5 -B- acheron · castB · gone
- 6 -B-- shone · lastB · marathon · gone
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Since Persia fell at Marathon, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The yellow years have gathered fast: | 9 | ·/˘··/˘˘· |
| Long centuries have come and gone. | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| And yet (they say) the place will don | 8 | ········ |
| A phantom fury of the past, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Since Persia fell at Marathon; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And as of old, when Helicon | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Trembled and swayed with rapture vast | 10 | /˘˘··˘·/˘· |
| (Long centuries have come and gone), | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| This ancient plain, when night comes on, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Shakes to a ghostly battle-blast, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Since Persia fell at Marathon. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But into soundless Acheron | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| The glory of Greek shame was cast: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Long centuries have come and gone, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| The suns of Hellas have all shone, | 8 | ········ |
| The first has fallen to the last: -- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Since Persia fell at Marathon, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Long centuries have come and gone. | 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.