Analysis of Thyrsis a Monody
Matthew Arnold 1822 (Laleham) – 1888 (Liverpool)
How changed is here each spot man makes or fills!
In the two Hinkseys nothing keeps the same;
The village street its haunted mansion lacks,
And from the sign is gone Sibylla's name,
And from the roofs the twisted chimney-stacks--
Are ye too changed, ye hills?
See, 'tis no foot of unfamiliar men
To-night from Oxford up your pathway strays!
Here came I often, often, in old days--
Thyrsis and I; we still had Thyrsis then.
Runs it not here, the track by Childsworth Farm,
Past the high wood, to where the elm-tree crowns
The hill behind whose ridge the sunset flames?
The signal-elm, that looks on Ilsley Downs,
The Vale, the three lone weirs, the youthful Thames?--
This winter-eve is warm,
Humid the air! leafless, yet soft as spring,
The tender purple spray on copse and briers!
And that sweet city with her dreaming spires,
She needs not June for beauty's heightening,
Lovely all times she lies, lovely to-night!--
Only, methinks, some loss of habit's power
Befalls me wandering through this upland dim.
Once pass'd I blindfold here, at any hour;
Now seldom come I, since I came with him.
That single elm-tree bright
Against the west--I miss it! is it goner?
We prized it dearly; while it stood, we said,
Our friend, the Gipsy-Scholar, was not dead;
While the tree lived, he in these fields lived on.
Too rare, too rare, grow now my visits here,
But once I knew each field, each flower, each stick;
And with the country-folk acquaintance made
By barn in threshing-time, by new-built rick.
Here, too, our shepherd-pipes we first assay'd.
Ah me! this many a year
My pipe is lost, my shepherd's holiday!
Needs must I lose them, needs with heavy heart
Into the world and wave of men depart;
But Thyrsis of his own will went away.
It irk'd him to be here, he could not rest.
He loved each simple joy the country yields,
He loved his mates; but yet he could not keep,
For that a shadow lour'd on the fields,
Here with the shepherds and the silly sheep.
Some life of men unblest
He knew, which made him droop, and fill'd his head.
He went; his piping took a troubled sound
Of storms that rage outside our happy ground;
He could not wait their passing, he is dead.
So, some tempestuous morn in early June,
When the year's primal burst of bloom is o'er,
Before the roses and the longest day--
When garden-walks and all the grassy floor
With blossoms red and white of fallen May
And chestnut-flowers are strewn--
So have I heard the cuckoo's parting cry,
From the wet field, through the vext garden-trees,
Come with the volleying rain and tossing breeze:
The bloom is gone, and with the bloom go I!
Too quick despairer, wherefore wilt thou go?
Soon will the high Midsummer pomps come on,
Soon will the musk carnations break and swell,
Soon shall we have gold-dusted snapdragon,
Sweet-William with his homely cottage-smell,
And stocks in fragrant blow;
Roses that down the alleys shine afar,
And open, jasmine-muffled lattices,
And groups under the dreaming garden-trees,
And the full moon, and the white evening-star.
He hearkens not! light comer, he is flown!
What matters it? next year he will return,
And we shall have him in the sweet spring-days,
With whitening hedges, and uncrumpling fern,
And blue-bells trembling by the forest-ways,
And scent of hay new-mown.
But Thyrsis never more we swains shall see;
See him come back, and cut a smoother reed,
And blow a strain the world at last shall heed--
For Time, not Corydon, hath conquer'd thee!
Alack, for Corydon no rival now!--
But when Sicilian shepherds lost a mate,
Some good survivor with his flute would go,
Piping a ditty sad for Bion's fate;
And cross the unpermitted ferry's flow,
And relax Pluto's brow,
And make leap up with joy the beauteous head
Of
Scheme | ABCBCADEED XFXFXXGAXG HIJIJHIKKL XMXMHXNOON XPQPQHKRRK SINXNSTUUT VLWXWVXAUX XYEYEDZ1 1 Z 2 3 V3 V2 KX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111111 001110101 0101110101 01011111 0101010101 111111 111110101 111101111 1111010011 10111111 111101111 1011110111 010111011 0101111101 0101110101 110111 1001101111 0101011101 0111010101 111111100 1011111011 101111110 01110011101 1111111010 1101111111 110111 01011111110 1111011111 1010110111 1011101111 1111111101 11111111011 0101010101 110111111 1110101111 1111001 111111010 1111111101 0101011101 111111101 1111111111 1111010101 1111111111 11011101 1101000101 11111 1111110111 1111010101 11111110101 1111110111 1110010101 10110111110 0101000101 1101010101 1101011101 011011 1111010101 1011101101 110110101 0111010111 1111111 1101110111 1101010101 111111010 1101110101 010101 1011010101 01010101 0110010101 0011001101 1101110111 1101111101 0111100111 110010011 01110010101 011111 111011111 1111010101 0101011111 11111101 1111101 11010010101 1101011111 100101111 0101101 001101 011111011 1 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 4,430 |
Words | 657 |
Sentences | 33 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 8 |
Lines Amount | 88 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 319 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 73 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 30, 2023
- 3:22 min read
- 157 Views
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"Thyrsis a Monody" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/27298/thyrsis-a-monody>.
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