Legend
Long ago Apollo called to Aristaeus, youngest of the shepherds,Saying, "I will make you keeper of my bees."Golden were the hives and golden was the honey; golden, too, the musicWhere the honey-makers hummed among the trees.
Happy Aristaeus loitered in the garden, wandered in the orchard,Careless and contented, indolent and free;Lightly took his labour, lightly took his pleasure, till the fated momentWhen across his pathway came Eurydice.
Then her eyes enkindled burning love within him; drove him wild withlongingFor the perfect sweetness of her flower-like face;Eagerly he followed, while she fled before him, over mead and mountain,On through field and forest, in a breathless race.
But the nymph, in flying, trod upon a serpent; like a dream she vanished;Pluto's chariot bore her down among the dead!Lonely Aristaeus, sadly home returning, found his garden empty,All the hives deserted, all the music fled.
Mournfully bewailing,--"Ah, my honey-makers, where have you departed?"Far and wide he sought them over sea and shore;Foolish is the tale that says he ever found them, brought them home intriumph,--Joys that once escape us fly for evermore.
Yet I dream that somewhere, clad in downy whiteness, dwell thehoney-makers,In aerial gardens that no mortal sees:And at times returning, lo, they flutter round us, gathering mysticharvest,--So I weave the legend of the long-lost bees.
Words in this poem
- 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.]
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
- drove n.
- A collection of cattle driven, or cattle collected for driving; a number of animals, as oxen, sheep, or swine, driven in a body. [AS. draf, fr. drifan to drive. See Drive.]
- breathless a.
- Spent with labor or violent action; out of breath.
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
- bewailing a.
- Wailing over; lamenting.
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
- clad v.
- To clothe. Holland.
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Legend is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, Project Gutenberg ebook #16229; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Van Dyke, Legend, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/legend-2.html, id L22788.
Form and metre
Legend is 28 lines in 6 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 -A-A shepherds · beesA · music · treesA
- 3 --A-A with · longing · faceA · mountain · raceA
- 4 -A-A vanished · deadA · empty · fledA
- 5 -A--A departed · shoreA · in · triumph · evermoreA
- 6 -AA--A the · makersA · seesA · mystic · harvest · beesA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Long ago Apollo called to Aristaeus, youngest of the shepherds, | 17 | ·˘/˘/˘·····/˘··/˘ |
| Saying, "I will make you keeper of my bees." | 11 | /˘····/˘··· |
| Golden were the hives and golden was the honey; golden, too, the music | 18 | /˘····/˘··/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Where the honey-makers hummed among the trees. | 11 | ··/˘/˘····· |
| Happy Aristaeus loitered in the garden, wandered in the orchard, | 17 | /˘···/˘··/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Careless and contented, indolent and free; | 10 | /˘·˘/˘/˘·· |
| Lightly took his labour, lightly took his pleasure, till the fated moment | 18 | /˘··/·/˘··/˘··/˘/˘ |
| When across his pathway came Eurydice. | 10 | ·˘/·/····· |
| Then her eyes enkindled burning love within him; drove him wild with | 15 | ·····/˘········ |
| longing | 2 | /˘ |
| For the perfect sweetness of her flower-like face; | 11 | ··/·/˘··/·· |
| Eagerly he followed, while she fled before him, over mead and mountain, | 16 | /˘·/˘·········/˘ |
| On through field and forest, in a breathless race. | 11 | ····/˘··/˘· |
| But the nymph, in flying, trod upon a serpent; like a dream she vanished; | 18 | ····/˘····/˘····/˘ |
| Pluto's chariot bore her down among the dead! | 11 | /˘/˘······· |
| Lonely Aristaeus, sadly home returning, found his garden empty, | 17 | /˘···/˘·˘/˘··/˘/˘ |
| All the hives deserted, all the music fled. | 11 | ···˘/˘··/˘· |
| Mournfully bewailing,--"Ah, my honey-makers, where have you departed?" | 18 | ···˘/˘··/˘/˘···˘/˘ |
| Far and wide he sought them over sea and shore; | 10 | ·········· |
| Foolish is the tale that says he ever found them, brought them home in | 15 | /˘······/······ |
| triumph,-- | 2 | /˘ |
| Joys that once escape us fly for evermore. | 11 | ···˘/···/˘· |
| Yet I dream that somewhere, clad in downy whiteness, dwell the | 14 | ····/···/˘/˘·· |
| honey-makers, | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| In aerial gardens that no mortal sees: | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| And at times returning, lo, they flutter round us, gathering mystic | 16 | ···˘/˘··/˘··/˘/˘ |
| harvest,-- | 2 | /˘ |
| So I weave the legend of the long-lost bees. | 11 | ····/˘····· |
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.