The Maiden from Afar (Or from Abroad.)
Within a vale, each infant year,When earliest larks first carol free,To humble shepherds cloth appearA wondrous maiden, fair to see.Not born within that lowly place--From whence she wandered, none could tell;Her parting footsteps left no trace,When once the maiden sighed farewell.
And blessed was her presence there--Each heart, expanding, grew more gay;Yet something loftier still than fairKept man's familiar looks away.From fairy gardens, known to none,She brought mysterious fruits and flowers--The things of some serener sun--Some Nature more benign than ours.
With each her gifts the maiden shared--To some the fruits, the flowers to some;Alike the young, the aged fared;Each bore a blessing back to home.Though every guest was welcome there,Yet some the maiden held more dear,And culled her rarest sweets whene'erShe saw two hearts that loved draw near.
Words in this poem
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- carol v. t.
- To praise or celebrate in song.
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Maiden from Afar (Or from Abroad.) 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 Maiden from Afar (Or from Abroad.), in The Poems of Schiller: Third Period (1805), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/schiller-third-period/the-maiden-from-afar-or-from-abroad.html, id L21853.
Form and metre
The Maiden from Afar (Or from Abroad.) is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 ABABCDCD yearA · freeB · appearA · seeB · placeC · tellD · traceC · farewellD
- 2 ABABCDCD thereA · gayB · fairA · awayB · noneC · flowersD · sunC · oursD
- 3 ABABCCCC sharedA · someB · faredA · homeB · thereC · dearC · whene'erC · nearC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Within a vale, each infant year, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| When earliest larks first carol free, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To humble shepherds cloth appear | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| A wondrous maiden, fair to see. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Not born within that lowly place-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| From whence she wandered, none could tell; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Her parting footsteps left no trace, | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| When once the maiden sighed farewell. | 8 | ···/˘··/ |
| And blessed was her presence there-- | 8 | ··˘··/˘· |
| Each heart, expanding, grew more gay; | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Yet something loftier still than fair | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Kept man's familiar looks away. | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| From fairy gardens, known to none, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| She brought mysterious fruits and flowers-- | 8 | ··˘/˘··/ |
| The things of some serener sun-- | 8 | ········ |
| Some Nature more benign than ours. | 9 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘ |
| With each her gifts the maiden shared-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To some the fruits, the flowers to some; | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Alike the young, the aged fared; | 8 | ˘/·····˘ |
| Each bore a blessing back to home. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Though every guest was welcome there, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Yet some the maiden held more dear, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And culled her rarest sweets whene'er | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| She saw two hearts that loved draw near. | 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.