Fragment 54 with 53, tr. M. J. Walhouse
Then, as the broad moon rose on high,The maidens stood the altar nigh;And some in graceful measureThe well-loved spot danced round,With lightsome footsteps treadingThe soft and grassy ground.
Words in this poem
- lightsome a.
- Having light; lighted; not dark or gloomy; bright.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fragment 54 with 53, tr. M. J. Walhouse 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 54 with 53, tr. M. J. Walhouse, in Sappho: Selected Renderings (1908), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #57390, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sappho-wharton/fr-54.html, id L29184.
Form and metre
Fragment 54 with 53, tr. M. J. Walhouse is 6 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 AA-B-B highA · nighA · measure · roundB · treading · groundB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Then, as the broad moon rose on high, | 8 | ········ |
| The maidens stood the altar nigh; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And some in graceful measure | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| The well-loved spot danced round, | 8 | ···˘··˘· |
| With lightsome footsteps treading | 7 | ·/˘/·/˘ |
| The soft and grassy ground. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.