Venus Victrix
Could Juno's self more sovereign presence wearThan thou, 'mid other ladies throned in grace?--Or Pallas, when thou bend'st with soul-stilled faceO'er poet's page gold-shadowed in thy hair?Dost thou than Venus seem less heavenly fairWhen o'er the sea of love's tumultuous tranceHovers thy smile, and mingles with thy glanceThat sweet voice like the last wave murmuring there?
Before such triune loveliness divineAwestruck I ask, which goddess here most claimsThe prize that, howsoe'er adjudged, is thine?Then Love breathes low the sweetest of thy names;And Venus Victrix to my heart doth bringHerself, the Helen of her guerdoning.
Words in this poem
- pallas n.
- Pallas Athene, the Grecian goddess of wisdom, called also Athene, and identified, at a later period, with the Roman Minerva.
- triune a.
- Being three in one; -- an epithet used to express the unity of a trinity of persons in the Godhead. [Pref. tri- + L. unus one. See One.]
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
- victrix n.
- Victress. C. Bronté. [L.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Venus Victrix is in the public domain. This text is taken from The House of Life, Project Gutenberg ebook #3692; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Venus Victrix, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/venus-victrix.html, id L20953.
Form and metre
Venus Victrix is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 ABBAACCA wearA · graceB · faceB · hairA · fairA · tranceC · glanceC · thereA
- 2 ABABCC divineA · claimsB · thineA · namesB · bringC · guerdoningC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Could Juno's self more sovereign presence wear | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Than thou, 'mid other ladies throned in grace?-- | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Or Pallas, when thou bend'st with soul-stilled face | 10 | ·········· |
| O'er poet's page gold-shadowed in thy hair? | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Dost thou than Venus seem less heavenly fair | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| When o'er the sea of love's tumultuous trance | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Hovers thy smile, and mingles with thy glance | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| That sweet voice like the last wave murmuring there? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Before such triune loveliness divine | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Awestruck I ask, which goddess here most claims | 10 | /····/˘··· |
| The prize that, howsoe'er adjudged, is thine? | 10 | ·····˘/˘·· |
| Then Love breathes low the sweetest of thy names; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And Venus Victrix to my heart doth bring | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Herself, the Helen of her guerdoning. | 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.