Adieu to the Valley
Oh, of love twin-brother anguish!In thy pangs I faint and languish,Cannot find relief from thee!Nay, no marvel! I must grieve her,Wander forth in exile, leave her,Who hath gained the heart of me;Who of loveliness so rare isThat for her sake Trojan ParisWould have left his Helenë.
Smile, thou valley, sweetest, fairest,Wreathed with roses of the rarest,Flower of all the vales that be!Vale of vales, all vales excelling,Sun and moon thy praise are telling,With the song-birds' melody;Nightingales thy praise are singing,O thou soothing solace-bringingTo the soul's despondency!
Words in this poem
- languish v. i.
- To cause to dr Shak.
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- solace n.
- Comfort in grief; alleviation of grief or anxiety; also, that which relieves in distress; that which cheers or consoles; relief. [OF. solas, ssoulaz, L. solacium, solatium, fr. solari to comfort, console. Cf. Console, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Adieu to the Valley is in the public domain. This text is taken from Wine, Women, and Song Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #18044; 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 Addington Symonds, Adieu to the Valley, in Wine, Women and Song (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18044, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/symonds-wine-women/adieu-to-the-valley.html, id L11850.
Form and metre
Adieu to the Valley is 18 lines in 2 stanzas of 9 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.7 syllables. 12 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 AABCCB--- anguishA · languishA · theeB · herC · herC · meB · is · paris · helenë
- 2 ---AA-BB- fairest · rarest · be · excellingA · tellingA · melody · singingB · bringingB · despondency
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, of love twin-brother anguish! | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| In thy pangs I faint and languish, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Cannot find relief from thee! | 7 | /˘·˘/·· |
| Nay, no marvel! I must grieve her, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Wander forth in exile, leave her, | 8 | /˘··/··· |
| Who hath gained the heart of me; | 8 | ···˘···· |
| Who of loveliness so rare is | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| That for her sake Trojan Paris | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Would have left his Helenë. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Smile, thou valley, sweetest, fairest, | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Wreathed with roses of the rarest, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Flower of all the vales that be! | 8 | /˘······ |
| Vale of vales, all vales excelling, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Sun and moon thy praise are telling, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| With the song-birds' melody; | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| Nightingales thy praise are singing, | 8 | /˘˘···/˘ |
| O thou soothing solace-bringing | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| To the soul's despondency! | 7 | ···˘/˘˘ |
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.