With a Copy of the Iliad
Bayard, awaken not this music strong,While round thy home the indolent sweet breezeFloats lightly as the summer breath of seasO’er which Ulysses heard the Sirens’ song.Dreams of low-lying isles to June belong,And Circe holds us in her haunts of ease;But later, when these high ancestral treesAre sere, and such melodious languors wrongThe reddening strength of the autumnal year,Yield to heroic words thy ear and eye;—Intent on these broad pages thou shalt hearThe trumpets’ blare, the Argive battle-cry,And see Achilles hurl his hurtling spear,And mark the Trojan arrows make reply!
Words in this poem
- bayard n.
- Etym: [OF. bayard, baiart, bay horse; bai bay + -ard. See Bay, a., and -ard.]
- indolent a.
- Free from toil, pain, or trouble. [Pref. in- not + L. dolens, -entis, p. pr. of dolere to feel pain: cf. F. indolent. See Dolorous.]
- sere n.
- Claw; talon. Chapman. [F. serre.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- trumpets n.
- A plant (Sarracenia flava) with long, hollow leaves.
- blare v. i.
- To sound loudly and somewhat harshly. [OE. blaren, bloren, to cry, woop; cf. G. plärren to bleat, D. blaren to bleat, cry, weep. Prob. an imitative word, but cf. also E. blast. Cf. Blore.]
- argive a.
- Of or performance to Argos, the capital of Argolis in Greece. [L. Argivus, fr. Argos, Argi.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
With a Copy of the Iliad 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, With a Copy of the Iliad, in The Poetical Works of Edmund Clarence Stedman (1860–1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70763, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stedman-poems/with-a-copy-of-the-iliad.html, id L10707.
Form and metre
With a Copy of the Iliad is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDCD, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 36% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other Italian sonnets, 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 ABBAABBACDCDCD strongA · breezeB · seasB · songA · belongA · easeB · treesB · wrongA · yearC · eyeD · hearC · cryD · spearC · replyD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Bayard, awaken not this music strong, | 10 | /˘˘/˘··/˘· |
| While round thy home the indolent sweet breeze | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Floats lightly as the summer breath of seas | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| O’er which Ulysses heard the Sirens’ song. | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Dreams of low-lying isles to June belong, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And Circe holds us in her haunts of ease; | 9 | ········· |
| But later, when these high ancestral trees | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Are sere, and such melodious languors wrong | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| The reddening strength of the autumnal year, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Yield to heroic words thy ear and eye;— | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Intent on these broad pages thou shalt hear | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| The trumpets’ blare, the Argive battle-cry, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| And see Achilles hurl his hurtling spear, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| And mark the Trojan arrows make reply! | 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.