Fragment 68, tr. Felton (Wharton prints a query)
In the cold grave where thou shalt lieAll memory too of thee shall die,Who in this life's auspicious hoursDisdained Pieria's genial flowers;And in the mansions of the dead,With the vile crowd of ghosts, thy shade,While nobler spirits point with scorn,Shall flit neglected and forlorn.
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- genial a.
- Contributing to, or concerned in, propagation or production; generative; procreative; productive. [L. genialis: cf. OF. genial. See Genius.]
- flit a.
- Nimble; quick; swift. See Fleet.
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fragment 68, tr. Felton (Wharton prints a query) 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 68, tr. Felton (Wharton prints a query), in Sappho: Selected Renderings (1908), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #57390, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sappho-wharton/fr-68.html, id L29188.
Form and metre
Fragment 68, tr. Felton (Wharton prints a query) is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 75% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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--CC lieA · dieA · hoursB · flowersB · dead · shade · scornC · forlornC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In the cold grave where thou shalt lie | 8 | ········ |
| All memory too of thee shall die, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Who in this life's auspicious hours | 9 | ····˘/˘/˘ |
| Disdained Pieria's genial flowers; | 8 | ˘/··/˘/˘ |
| And in the mansions of the dead, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With the vile crowd of ghosts, thy shade, | 8 | ········ |
| While nobler spirits point with scorn, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Shall flit neglected and forlorn. | 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.