The Dirge
Old winter was goneIn his weakness back to the mountains hoar,And the spring came downFrom the planet that hovers upon the shore
Where the sea of sunlight encroachesOn the limits of wintry night;--If the land, and the air, and the sea,Rejoice not when spring approaches,We did not rejoice in thee,Ginevra!
She is still, she is coldOn the bridal couch,One step to the white deathbed,And one to the bier,And one to the charnel--and one, oh where?The dark arrow fledIn the noon.
Ere the sun through heaven once more has rolled,The rats in her heartWill have made their nest,And the worms be alive in her golden hair,While the Spirit that guides the sun,Sits throned in his flaming chair,She shall sleep.
Words in this poem
- hoar v. t.
- To become moldy or musty. [AS. harian to grow gray.]
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
- deathbed n.
- The bed in which a person dies; hence, the closing hours of life of one who dies by sickness or the like; the last sickness.
- bier n.
- A handbarrow or portable frame on which a corpse is placed or borne to the grave. [OE. bæe, beere, AS. b, b; akin to D. baar, OHG. bara, G. bahre, Icel barar, Dbaare, L. feretrum, Gr. , from the same bear to produce. See 1st Bear, and cf. Barr]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Dirge 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, The Dirge, 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/the-dirge.html, id L16456.
Form and metre
The Dirge is 24 lines in 4 stanzas. 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -A-A gone · hoarA · down · shoreA
- 2 A-BAB- encroachesA · night · seaB · approachesA · theeB · ginevra
- 3 --ABBA- cold · couch · deathbedA · bierB · whereB · fledA · noon
- 4 ---A-A- rolled · heart · nest · hairA · sun · chairA · sleep
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Old winter was gone | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| In his weakness back to the mountains hoar, | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| And the spring came down | 5 | ····· |
| From the planet that hovers upon the shore | 11 | ··/˘·/˘···· |
| Where the sea of sunlight encroaches | 9 | ····/·˘/˘ |
| On the limits of wintry night;-- | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| If the land, and the air, and the sea, | 9 | ········· |
| Rejoice not when spring approaches, | 8 | ˘/···˘/˘ |
| We did not rejoice in thee, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Ginevra! | 3 | ˘/˘ |
| She is still, she is cold | 6 | ······ |
| On the bridal couch, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| One step to the white deathbed, | 7 | ·····/· |
| And one to the bier, | 5 | ····· |
| And one to the charnel--and one, oh where? | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| The dark arrow fled | 5 | ··/˘· |
| In the noon. | 3 | ··· |
| Ere the sun through heaven once more has rolled, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| The rats in her heart | 5 | ····· |
| Will have made their nest, | 5 | ····· |
| And the worms be alive in her golden hair, | 11 | ····˘/··/˘· |
| While the Spirit that guides the sun, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Sits throned in his flaming chair, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| She shall sleep. | 3 | ··· |
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.