Lines
Far, far away, O yeHalcyons of Memory,Seek some far calmer nestThan this abandoned breast!No news of your false springTo my heart's winter bring,Once having gone, in vainYe come again.
Vultures, who build your bowersHigh in the Future's towers,Withered hopes on hopes are spread!Dying joys, choked by the dead,Will serve your beaks for preyMany a day.
Words in this poem
- calmer n.
- One who, or that which, makes calm.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lines is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #4798; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lines, in Ode to the West Wind, and Other Poems (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/lines-3.html, id L16438.
Form and metre
Lines is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 --AABBCC ye · memory · nestA · breastA · springB · bringB · vainC · againC
- 2 AABBCC bowersA · towersA · spreadB · deadB · preyC · dayC
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Far, far away, O ye | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Halcyons of Memory, | 7 | /˘˘·/˘˘ |
| Seek some far calmer nest | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Than this abandoned breast! | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| No news of your false spring | 6 | ······ |
| To my heart's winter bring, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Once having gone, in vain | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Ye come again. | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Vultures, who build your bowers | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
| High in the Future's towers, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Withered hopes on hopes are spread! | 7 | /˘····· |
| Dying joys, choked by the dead, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Will serve your beaks for prey | 6 | ······ |
| Many a day. | 4 | /˘·· |
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.