Echoes
There is a far unfading cityWhere bright immortal people are;Remote from hollow shame and pity,Their portals frame no guiding starBut blightless pleasure's moteless raysThat follow their footsteps as they danceLong lutanied measures through a mazeOf flower-like song and dalliance.
There always glows the vernal sun,There happy birds for ever sing,There faint perfumed breezes runThrough branches of eternal spring;There faces browned and fruit and milkAnd blue-winged words and rose-bloomed kissesIn galleys gowned with gold and silkShake on a lake of dainty blisses.
Coyness is not, nor bear they thought,Save of a shining gracious flow;All natural joys are temperate sought.For calm desire there they know,A fire promiscuous, languorous, kind;They scorn all fiercer lusts and quarrels,Nor blow about on anger's wind,Nor burn with love, nor rust with morals.
Folk in the far unfading city,Burning with lusts my senses are,I am torn with love and shame and pity,Be to my heart a guiding star:Wise youths and maidens in the sun,With eyes that charm and lips that sing,And gentle arms that rippling run,Shed on my heart your endless spring!
Words in this poem
- maze n.
- A wild fancy; a confused notion. [OE. mase; cf. OE. masen to confuse, puzzle, Norweg. masast to fall into a slumber, masa to be continually busy, prate, chatter, Icel. masa to chatter, dial. Sw.]
- dalliance n.
- The act of dallying, trifling, or fondling; interchange of caresses; wanton play. [From Dally.]
- gowned p. a.
- Dressed in a gown; clad.
- dainty n.
- Value; estimation; the gratification or pleasure taken in anything. [OE. deinie, dainte, deintie, deyntee, OF. deintié delicacy, orig., dignity, honor, fr. L. dignitas, fr. dignus worthy. See Deign, and cf. Dignity.]
- languorous a.
- Producing, or tending to produce, languor; characterized by languor. [From Languor: cf. F. langoureux.]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Echoes is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems - First Series, Project Gutenberg ebook #37860; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Collings Squire, Echoes, in Poems: First Series (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37860, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/squire-poems/echoes.html, id L23171.
Form and metre
Echoes is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 cityA · areB · pityA · starB · raysC · danceD · mazeC · dallianceD
- 2 ABABCDCD sunA · singB · runA · springB · milkC · kissesD · silkC · blissesD
- 3 ABABCDCD thoughtA · flowB · soughtA · knowB · kindC · quarrelsD · windC · moralsD
- 4 ABABCDCD cityA · areB · pityA · starB · sunC · singD · runC · springD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There is a far unfading city | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Where bright immortal people are; | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Remote from hollow shame and pity, | 9 | ˘/·/˘··/˘ |
| Their portals frame no guiding star | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But blightless pleasure's moteless rays | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| That follow their footsteps as they dance | 9 | ·/˘·/···· |
| Long lutanied measures through a maze | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of flower-like song and dalliance. | 9 | ·/˘···/˘˘ |
| There always glows the vernal sun, | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| There happy birds for ever sing, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| There faint perfumed breezes run | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Through branches of eternal spring; | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| There faces browned and fruit and milk | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And blue-winged words and rose-bloomed kisses | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| In galleys gowned with gold and silk | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Shake on a lake of dainty blisses. | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Coyness is not, nor bear they thought, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Save of a shining gracious flow; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| All natural joys are temperate sought. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| For calm desire there they know, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| A fire promiscuous, languorous, kind; | 8 | ·//˘/˘˘· |
| They scorn all fiercer lusts and quarrels, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Nor blow about on anger's wind, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Nor burn with love, nor rust with morals. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Folk in the far unfading city, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Burning with lusts my senses are, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| I am torn with love and shame and pity, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Be to my heart a guiding star: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Wise youths and maidens in the sun, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With eyes that charm and lips that sing, | 8 | ········ |
| And gentle arms that rippling run, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Shed on my heart your endless spring! | 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.