The Maid of Orleans
Humanity's bright image to impair.Scorn laid thee prostrate in the deepest dust;Wit wages ceaseless war on all that's fair,--In angel and in God it puts no trust;The bosom's treasures it would make its prey,--Besieges fancy,--dims e'en faith's pure ray.
Yet issuing like thyself from humble line,Like thee a gentle shepherdess is she--Sweet poesy affords her rights divine,And to the stars eternal soars with thee.Around thy brow a glory she hath thrown;The heart 'twas formed thee,--ever thou'lt live on!
The world delights whate'er is bright to stain,And in the dust to lay the glorious low;Yet fear not! noble bosoms still remain,That for the lofty, for the radiant glowLet Momus serve to fill the booth with mirth;A nobler mind loves forms of nobler worth.
Words in this poem
- ceaseless a.
- Without pause or end; incessant.
- shepherdess n.
- A woman who tends sheep; hence, a rural lass.
- poesy n.
- The art of composing poems; poetical skill or faculty; as, the heavenly gift of poesy. [F. poésie (cf. It. poesia), L. poesis, from Gr. Posy.]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- momus n.
- The god of mockery and censure.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Maid of Orleans 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, The Maid of Orleans, in The Poems of Schiller: Third Period (1805), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/schiller-third-period/the-maid-of-orleans.html, id L21877.
Form and metre
The Maid of Orleans is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABABCC impairA · dustB · fairA · trustB · preyC · rayC
- 2 ABAB-- lineA · sheB · divineA · theeB · thrown · on
- 3 ABABCC stainA · lowB · remainA · glowB · mirthC · worthC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Humanity's bright image to impair. | 10 | ˘/˘˘·/˘·˘/ |
| Scorn laid thee prostrate in the deepest dust; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Wit wages ceaseless war on all that's fair,-- | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| In angel and in God it puts no trust; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The bosom's treasures it would make its prey,-- | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Besieges fancy,--dims e'en faith's pure ray. | 10 | ˘/˘/˘····· |
| Yet issuing like thyself from humble line, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Like thee a gentle shepherdess is she-- | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| Sweet poesy affords her rights divine, | 10 | ·/˘˘˘/··˘/ |
| And to the stars eternal soars with thee. | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Around thy brow a glory she hath thrown; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The heart 'twas formed thee,--ever thou'lt live on! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The world delights whate'er is bright to stain, | 11 | ··˘/˘˘/···· |
| And in the dust to lay the glorious low; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Yet fear not! noble bosoms still remain, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| That for the lofty, for the radiant glow | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Let Momus serve to fill the booth with mirth; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| A nobler mind loves forms of nobler worth. | 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.