On Landor's "Hellenics"
Come hither, who grow cloyed to surfeitingWith lyric draughts o'ersweet, from rills that riseOn Hybla not Parnassus mountain: comeWith beakers rinsed of the dulcifluous waveHither, and see a magic miracleOf happiest science, the bland Attic skiesTrue-mirrored by an English well;--no streamWhose heaven-belying surface makes the starsReel, with its restless idiosyncrasy;But well unstirred, save when at times it takesTribute of lover's eyelids, and at timesBubbles with laughter of some sprite below.
Words in this poem
- parnassus n.
- A mountain in Greece, sacred to Apollo and the Muses, and famous for a temple of Apollo and for the Castalian spring. Grass of Parnassus. (Bot.) See under Grass, and Parnassia.
- dulcifluous a.
- Flowing sweetly. [L. dulcis sweet + fluere to flow.]
- idiosyncrasy n.
- A peculiarity of physical or mental constitution or temperament; a characteristic belonging to, and distinguishing, an individual; characteristic susceptibility; idiocrasy; eccentricity. [Gr. idiosyncrasie. See Idiom, and Crasis.]
- sprite n.
- A spirit; a soul; a shade; also, an apparition. See Spright. [OE. sprit, F. esprit, fr. L. spiritus. See Spirit, and cf. Sprightly.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On Landor's "Hellenics" is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of William Watson, Project Gutenberg ebook #13179; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Watson, On Landor's "Hellenics", in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/on-landor-s-hellenics.html, id L11256.
Form and metre
On Landor's "Hellenics" is 12 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 84% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 83% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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------ surfeiting · riseA · come · wave · miracle · skiesA · stream · stars · idiosyncrasy · takes · times · below
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Come hither, who grow cloyed to surfeiting | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| With lyric draughts o'ersweet, from rills that rise | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| On Hybla not Parnassus mountain: come | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| With beakers rinsed of the dulcifluous wave | 11 | ·/˘···˘/˘˘· |
| Hither, and see a magic miracle | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘˘ |
| Of happiest science, the bland Attic skies | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| True-mirrored by an English well;--no stream | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Whose heaven-belying surface makes the stars | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Reel, with its restless idiosyncrasy; | 10 | ···/˘˘˘/˘· |
| But well unstirred, save when at times it takes | 10 | ·········· |
| Tribute of lover's eyelids, and at times | 10 | /˘·/˘/···· |
| Bubbles with laughter of some sprite below. | 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.