Fragment 2, tr. Ambrose Philips (1711)
Blest as the immortal gods is he,The youth who fondly sits by thee,And hears and sees thee all the whileSoftly speak and sweetly smile.
'Twas this deprived my soul of rest,And raised such tumults in my breast;For while I gazed, in transport tost,My breath was gone, my voice was lost:
My bosom glowed; the subtle flameRan quick through all my vital frame;O'er my dim eyes a darkness hung;My ears with hollow murmurs rung.
In dewy damps my limbs were chilled;My blood with gentle horror thrilled;My feeble pulse forgot to play;I fainted, sank, and died away.
Words in this poem
- fondly adv.
- Foolishly. Verstegan (1673).
- rung n.
- A floor timber in a ship. [OE. ronge, AS. hrung, a staff, rod, pole; akin to G. runge a short, thick piece of iron or wood, OD. ronghe a prop, support, Icel. röng a rib in a ship, Goth. H]
- chilled a.
- Hardened on the surface or edge by chilling; as, chilled iron; a chilled wheel.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fragment 2, tr. Ambrose Philips (1711) is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sappho: Memoir, Text, Selected Renderings, and a Literal Translation (ed. Henry Thornton Wharton, John Lane, 1908, fifth edition), Project Gutenberg ebook #57390, the Various (ed. H. T. Wharton) 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: Sappho, Fragment 2, tr. Ambrose Philips (1711), in Sappho: Selected Renderings (1908), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #57390, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sappho-wharton/fr-2.html, id L29170.
Form and metre
Fragment 2, tr. Ambrose Philips (1711) is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 AABB heA · theeA · whileB · smileB
- 2 AAAA restA · breastA · tostA · lostA
- 3 AABB flameA · frameA · hungB · rungB
- 4 AABB chilledA · thrilledA · playB · awayB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Blest as the immortal gods is he, | 9 | ···˘/˘··· |
| The youth who fondly sits by thee, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And hears and sees thee all the while | 8 | ········ |
| Softly speak and sweetly smile. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| 'Twas this deprived my soul of rest, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And raised such tumults in my breast; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For while I gazed, in transport tost, | 8 | ·····˘/· |
| My breath was gone, my voice was lost: | 8 | ········ |
| My bosom glowed; the subtle flame | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Ran quick through all my vital frame; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| O'er my dim eyes a darkness hung; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| My ears with hollow murmurs rung. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| In dewy damps my limbs were chilled; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| My blood with gentle horror thrilled; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| My feeble pulse forgot to play; | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| I fainted, sank, and died away. | 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.