Love Among the Maidens
Yonder choir of virgins seeThrough the spring advancing,Where the sun's warmth, fair and free,From the green leaves glancing,Weaves a lattice of light gloomAnd soft sunbeams o'er us,'Neath the linden-trees in bloom,For the Cyprian chorus.
In this vale where blossoms blow,Blooming, summer-scented,'Mid the lilies row by row,Spreads a field flower-painted.Here the blackbirds through the daleEach to each are singing,And the jocund nightingaleHer fresh voice is flinging.
See the maidens crowned with roseSauntering through the grasses!Who could tell the mirth of thoseLaughing, singing lasses?Or with what a winning graceThey their charms discover,Charms of form and blushing face,To the gazing lover?
Down the flowery greenwood gladeAs I chanced to wander,From bright eyes a serving-maidShot Love's arrows yonder;I for her, 'mid all the crewOf the girls of Venus,Wait and yearn until I viewLove spring up between us.
Words in this poem
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- glancing a.
- Shooting, as light.
- cyprian a.
- Belonging to Cyprus.
- 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.]
- jocund
- Merry; cheerful; gay; airy; lively; sportive. [L. jocundus, jucundus, orig., helpful, fr. juvare to help. See Aid.]
- discover v. i.
- To discover or show one's self.
- greenwood n.
- A forest as it appears is spring and summer.
- glade n.
- An open passage through a wood; a grassy open or cleared space in a forest. [Prob. of Scand. origin, and akin to glad, a.; cf. also W. golead, goleuad, a lighting, illumination, fr. goleu light, clear, bright, goleu fwlch glade, lit., a ]
- yearn v. t.
- To pain; to grieve; to vex. [Also earn, ern; probably a corruption of OE. ermen to grieve, AS. ierman, yrman, or geierman, geyrman, fr. earm wretched, poor; akin to D. & G. arm, Icel. armr,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love Among the Maidens 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, Love Among the Maidens, in Wine, Women and Song (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18044, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/symonds-wine-women/love-among-the-maidens.html, id L11827.
Form and metre
Love Among the Maidens is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 15 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 34% 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 ABABCDCD seeA · advancingB · freeA · glancingB · gloomC · usD · bloomC · chorusD
- 2 A-A-BCBC blowA · scented · rowA · painted · daleB · singingC · nightingaleB · flingingC
- 3 ABABCDCD roseA · grassesB · thoseA · lassesB · graceC · discoverD · faceC · loverD
- 4 ABABCDCD gladeA · wanderB · maidA · yonderB · crewC · venusD · viewC · usD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Yonder choir of virgins see | 7 | /˘/·/˘· |
| Through the spring advancing, | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| Where the sun's warmth, fair and free, | 7 | ······· |
| From the green leaves glancing, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Weaves a lattice of light gloom | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And soft sunbeams o'er us, | 6 | ··/··· |
| 'Neath the linden-trees in bloom, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| For the Cyprian chorus. | 7 | ··/˘˘/˘ |
| In this vale where blossoms blow, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Blooming, summer-scented, | 6 | /˘/˘/˘ |
| 'Mid the lilies row by row, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Spreads a field flower-painted. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Here the blackbirds through the dale | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Each to each are singing, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| And the jocund nightingale | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| Her fresh voice is flinging. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| See the maidens crowned with rose | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Sauntering through the grasses! | 7 | /˘˘··/˘ |
| Who could tell the mirth of those | 7 | ······· |
| Laughing, singing lasses? | 6 | /˘/˘/˘ |
| Or with what a winning grace | 7 | ····/˘· |
| They their charms discover, | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| Charms of form and blushing face, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| To the gazing lover? | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Down the flowery greenwood glade | 7 | ··/˘/·· |
| As I chanced to wander, | 7 | ···˘·/˘ |
| From bright eyes a serving-maid | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Shot Love's arrows yonder; | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| I for her, 'mid all the crew | 7 | ······· |
| Of the girls of Venus, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Wait and yearn until I view | 7 | ······· |
| Love spring up between us. | 6 | ······ |
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.