Greekism
Scarce has the fever so chilly of Gallomania departed,When a more burning attack in Grecomania breaks out.Greekism,--what did it mean?--'Twas harmony, reason, and clearness!Patience,--good gentlemen, pray, ere ye of Greekism speak!'Tis for an excellent cause ye are fighting, and all that I ask forIs that with reason it ne'er may be a laughing-stock made.
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- gallomania n.
- An excessive admiration of what is French. [L. Galli Gauls + mania madness.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Greekism is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Schiller — Third period, Project Gutenberg ebook #6796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Friedrich Schiller, Greekism, in The Poems of Schiller: Third Period (1805), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/schiller-third-period/greekism.html, id L21842.
Form and metre
Greekism is 6 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Scarce has the fever so chilly of Gallomania departed, | 16 | ···/˘·/˘·····˘/˘ |
| When a more burning attack in Grecomania breaks out. | 14 | ···/˘˘/······· |
| Greekism,--what did it mean?--'Twas harmony, reason, and clearness! | 14 | ·······/˘/˘·/˘ |
| Patience,--good gentlemen, pray, ere ye of Greekism speak! | 12 | /˘·/˘······· |
| 'Tis for an excellent cause ye are fighting, and all that I ask for | 16 | ···/˘···/˘······ |
| Is that with reason it ne'er may be a laughing-stock made. | 14 | ···/˘·····/˘·· |
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.