Upon Aster's Death
A Phosphor 'mongst the living late wert thou,But shin'st, among the dead, a Hesper now.
Old Hecuba, the Trojan matron's, yearsWere interwoven by the Fates with tears,But thee, with blooming hopes, my Dion! deck'd,Gods did a trophy of their power erect.Thy honour'd relics in thy country rest,Ah, Dion! whose love rages in my breast.
Words in this poem
- hesper n.
- The evening; Hesperus. [See Hesperian.]
- trophy n.
- A sign or memorial of a victory raised on the field of battle, or, in case of a naval victory, on the nearest land. Sometimes trophies were erected in the chief city of the conquered people. [F. trophée (cf. It. & Sp. trofeo), L. tropaeum, trophaeum, Gr. Trope.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Upon Aster's Death is in the public domain. This text is taken from Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657. With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait., Project Gutenberg ebook #32986; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Stanley, Upon Aster's Death, in Original Lyrics (1651), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32986, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stanley-lyrics/upon-aster-s-death.html, id L09008.
Form and metre
Upon Aster's Death is 8 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AA thouA · nowA
- 2 AABBCC yearsA · tearsA · deck'dB · erectB · restC · breastC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A Phosphor 'mongst the living late wert thou, | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| But shin'st, among the dead, a Hesper now. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Old Hecuba, the Trojan matron's, years | 9 | ·/˘·/˘/˘· |
| Were interwoven by the Fates with tears, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| But thee, with blooming hopes, my Dion! deck'd, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Gods did a trophy of their power erect. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘/ |
| Thy honour'd relics in thy country rest, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Ah, Dion! whose love rages in my breast. | 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.