Analysis of Medea in Athens
Augusta Davies Webster 1837 (Poole, Dorset) – 1894
Dead is he? Yes, our stranger guest said dead--
said it by noonday, when it seemed a thing
most natural and so indifferent
as if the tale ran that a while ago
there died a man I talked with a chance hour
when he by chance was near me. If I spoke
"Good news for us but ill news for the dead
when the gods sweep a villain down to them,"
'twas the prompt trick of words, like a pat phrase
from some one other's song, found on the lips
and used because 'tis there: for through all day
the news seemed neither good nor ill to me.
And now, when day with all its useless talk
and useless smiles and idiots' prying eyes
that impotently peer into one's life,
when day with all its seemly lying shows
has gone its way and left pleased fools to sleep,
while weary mummers, taking off the mask,
discern that face themselves forgot anon
and, sitting in the lap of sheltering night,
learn their own secrets from her--even now
does it seem either good or ill to me?
No, but mere strange.
And this most strange of all
that I care nothing.
Nay, how wild thought grows.
Meseems one came and told of Jason's death:
but 'twas a dream. Else should I, wondering thus,
reck not of him, nor with the virulent hate
that should be mine against mine enemy,
nor with that weakness which sometimes I feared
should this day make me, not remembering Glaucè,
envy him to death as though he had died mine?
Can he be dead? It were so strange a world
with him not in it.
Dimly I recall
some prophecy a god breathed by my mouth.
It could not err. What was it? For I think;--
it told his death¹.
Has a god come to me?
Is it thou, my Hecate? How know I all?
For I know all as if from long ago:
and I know all beholding instantly.
Is not that he, arisen through the mists?--
a lean and haggard man, rough round the eyes,
dull and with no scorn left upon his lip,
decayed out of his goodliness and strength;
a wanned and broken image of a god;
dim counterfeit of Jason, heavily
wearing the name of him and memories.
And lo, he rests with lax and careless limbs
on the loose sandbed wind-heaped round his ship
that rots in sloth like him, and props his head
on a half-buried fallen spar. The sea,
climbing the beach towards him, seethes and frets,
and on the verge two sunned and shadowed clouds
take shapes of notched rock-islands; and his thoughts
drift languid to the steep Symplegades
and the sound of waters crashing at their base.
Su d, wsper eikos, katqanei kakos kakws, Argous kara son leiyanw peplhgmenos. EUR. Med. 1386, 7.
And now he speaks out to his loneliness
"I was afraid and careful, but she laughed:
'Love steers' she said: and when the rocks were far,
grey twinkling spots in distance, suddenly
her face grew white, and, looking back to them,
she said, 'Oh love, a god has whispered me
'twere well had we died there, for strange mad woes
are waiting for us in your Greece': and then
she tossed her head back, while her brown hair streamed
gold in the wind and sun, and her face glowed
with daring beauty, 'What of woes', she cried,
'if only they leave time for love enough?'
But what a fire and flush! It took one's breath!"
And then he lay half musing, half adoze,
shadows of me went misty through his sight.
And bye and bye he roused and cried "Oh dolt!
Glaucè was never half so beautiful."
Then under part-closed lids remembering her,
"Poor Glaucè, a sweet face, and yet methinks
she might have wearied me:" and suddenly,
smiting the sand awhirl with his angry hand,
scorned at himself "What god befooled my wits
to dream my fancy for her yellow curls
and milk-white softness subtle policy?
Wealth and a royal bride: but what beyond?
Medea, with her skills, her presciences,
man's wisdom, woman's craft, her rage of love
that gave her to serve me strength next divine,
Medea would have made me what I would;
Glaucè but what she could. I schemed amiss
and earned the curses the gods send on fools.
Ruined, ruined! A laughing stock to foes!
No man so mean but he may pity me;
no man so wretched but will keep aloof
lest the curse upon me make him wretcheder.
Ruined!"
And lo I see him hide his face
like a man who'll weep with passion: but to him
the passion comes not, only slow few tears
of one too weary. And from the great field
where the boys race he hears their jubilant shout
hum through
Scheme | ABXCDXAEFXXG XHXIXXJKJGX LB IMNXGXBJ XX LXXM GLCGXHOXXGX XOAGXXXFP A NXXGEGIJXXXXMFK AXDFGXXXG XFXJXXXIGXDX PXXXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111010111 111111101 110001010 1101110101 11011110110 1111111111 1111111101 1011010111 1011111011 1111011101 0101111111 0111011111 0111111101 01010100101 1110111 111111101 1111011111 110110101 011101011 01000111001 1111010101 1111011111 1111 011111 11110 11111 111011101 11011111001 11111101001 1111011100 1111010111 11111101001 10111111111 1111101101 11101 1011 1100011111 1111111111 1111 101111 111111111 1111111101 0111010100 1111010101 0101011101 1011110111 01111101 0101010101 110110100 1001110100 0111110101 101111111 1101110111 1011010101 1001011101 0101110101 1111110011 1101011 00111010111 1111110111011111 0111111100 1101010111 1111010101 11001010100 0111010111 1111011101 1111111111 1101101101 1101110111 1001010011 1101011111 1101111101 11010011111 011111011 111110111 0101110111 111011100 11011101000 11011011 1111010100 101111101 110111111 1111010101 0111010100 1001011101 01010101 1101010111 1101111101 0101111111 111111101 0101001111 1010010111 1111111101 1111011101 101011111 10 01111111 10111110111 0101110111 1111001011 10111111001 11 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 4,277 |
Words | 816 |
Sentences | 43 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 11, 2, 8, 2, 4, 11, 9, 1, 15, 9, 12, 6 |
Lines Amount | 102 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 254 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 62 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 01, 2023
- 4:05 min read
- 235 Views
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"Medea in Athens" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4091/medea-in-athens>.
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