Amavi
I loved: and in the morning sky,A magic castle upward grew!Cloud-haunted turrets pointing highForever to the dreamy blue;Bright fountains leaping through and throughThe golden sunshine; on the airGay banners streaming;—never drewPainter or poet scene more fair.
And in that castle I would live,And in that castle I would die;And there, in curtained bowers, would giveHeart-warm responses, sigh for sigh;There, when but one sweet face was nigh,The hours should lightly move along,And ripple, as they glided by,Like stanzas of an antique song.
O foolish heart! O young romance,That faded with the noonday sun!Alas, for gentle dalliance,For life-long pleasures never won!O for a season dead and gone!A wizard time, which then did seemOnly a prelude, leading onTo sweeter portions of the dream.
She died,—nor wore my orange flowers:—No longer, in the morning sky,That magic castle lifts its towersWhich shone, awhile, so lustrously.Torn are the bannerols, and dryThe silver fountains in its halls;But the drear sea, with endless sigh,Moans round and over the crumbled walls.
Let the winds blow! let the white surgeEver among those ruins wail!Its moaning is a welcome dirgeFor wishes that could not avail.Let the winds blow! a fiercer galeIs wild within me! what may quellThat sullen tempest? I must sailWhither, O whither, who can tell!
Words in this poem
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- noonday n.
- Midday; twelve o'clock in the day; noon.
- dalliance n.
- The act of dallying, trifling, or fondling; interchange of caresses; wanton play. [From Dally.]
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
- drear n.
- Sadness; dismalness.
- dirge n.
- A piece of music of a mournful character, to accompany funeral rites; a funeral hymn. [Contraction of Lat. dirige, direct thou (imperative of dirigere), the first word of a funeral hymn (Lat. transl. of Psalm v. 8) beginning, "Dirige, Domine, in c]
- quell v. t.
- To take the life of; to kill. [OE. quellen to kill, AS. cwellan, causative of cwelan to die; akin to OHG. quellen to torment, Icel. kvelja. See Quail to cower.]
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amavi is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of Edmund Clarence Stedman, Project Gutenberg ebook #70763; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edmund Clarence Stedman, Amavi, in The Poetical Works of Edmund Clarence Stedman (1860–1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70763, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stedman-poems/amavi.html, id L10657.
Form and metre
Amavi is 40 lines in 5 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABBCBC, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 35% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABABBCBC skyA · grewB · highA · blueB · throughB · airC · drewB · fairC
- 2 ABABBCBC liveA · dieB · giveA · sighB · nighB · alongC · byB · songC
- 3 ABABCDCD romanceA · sunB · dallianceA · wonB · goneC · seemD · onC · dreamD
- 4 ABA-BCBC flowersA · skyB · towersA · lustrously · dryB · hallsC · sighB · wallsC
- 5 ABABBCBC surgeA · wailB · dirgeA · availB · galeB · quellC · sailB · tellC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I loved: and in the morning sky, | 9 | ··˘···/˘· |
| A magic castle upward grew! | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Cloud-haunted turrets pointing high | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Forever to the dreamy blue; | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| Bright fountains leaping through and through | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The golden sunshine; on the air | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| Gay banners streaming;—never drew | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Painter or poet scene more fair. | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| And in that castle I would live, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And in that castle I would die; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And there, in curtained bowers, would give | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘·· |
| Heart-warm responses, sigh for sigh; | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| There, when but one sweet face was nigh, | 8 | ········ |
| The hours should lightly move along, | 9 | ·/˘·/˘·˘/ |
| And ripple, as they glided by, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Like stanzas of an antique song. | 8 | ·/˘··˘/· |
| O foolish heart! O young romance, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| That faded with the noonday sun! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Alas, for gentle dalliance, | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘˘ |
| For life-long pleasures never won! | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| O for a season dead and gone! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A wizard time, which then did seem | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Only a prelude, leading on | 8 | /˘·/·/˘· |
| To sweeter portions of the dream. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| She died,—nor wore my orange flowers:— | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| No longer, in the morning sky, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| That magic castle lifts its towers | 9 | ·/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Which shone, awhile, so lustrously. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Torn are the bannerols, and dry | 8 | ········ |
| The silver fountains in its halls; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| But the drear sea, with endless sigh, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Moans round and over the crumbled walls. | 10 | ······/˘˘· |
| Let the winds blow! let the white surge | 8 | ········ |
| Ever among those ruins wail! | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Its moaning is a welcome dirge | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| For wishes that could not avail. | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Let the winds blow! a fiercer gale | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Is wild within me! what may quell | 8 | ········ |
| That sullen tempest? I must sail | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Whither, O whither, who can tell! | 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.