Analysis of Dithyramb

Friedrich Schiller 1759 (Marbach am Neckar) – 1805 (Weimar)



Believe me, together
          The bright gods come ever,
              Still as of old;
    Scarce see I Bacchus, the giver of joy,
    Than comes up fair Eros, the laugh-loving boy,
              And Phoebus, the stately, behold!

They come near and nearer,
            The heavenly ones all--
          The gods with their presence
            Fill earth as their hall!

Say, how shall I welcome,
          Human and earthborn,
              Sons of the sky?
    Pour out to me--pour the full life that ye live!
    What to ye, O ye gods! can the mortal one give?

The joys can dwell only
            In Jupiter's palace--
          Brimmed bright with your nectar,
            Oh, reach me the chalice!

"Hebe, the chalice
          Fill full to the brim!
    Steep his eyes--steep his eyes in the bath of the dew,
    Let him dream, while the Styx is concealed from his view,
          That the life of the gods is for him!"

It murmurs, it sparkles,
            The fount of delight;
          The bosom grows tranquil--
             The eye becomes bright.


Scheme AABCCB ADXD XXXXX XXAE EFGGF XHXH
Poetic Form
Metre 011010 011110 1111 1111001011 11111001101 01001001 111010 010011 011110 11111 111110 1001 1101 11111011111 111111101011 011110 010010 111110 111010 1010 11101 111111001101 111101101111 101101111 110110 01101 010110 01011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,089
Words 161
Sentences 11
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 6, 4, 5, 4, 5, 4
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 108
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

48 sec read
70

Friedrich Schiller

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet philosopher historian and playwright During the last seventeen years of his life Schiller struck up a productive if complicated friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang Goethe with whom he frequently discussed issues concerning aesthetics and encouraged Goethe to finish works he left merely as sketches this relationship and these discussions led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism They also worked together on Die Xenien The Xenies a collection of short but harshly satirical poems in which both Schiller and Goethe verbally attacked those persons they perceived to be enemies of their aesthetic agenda. more…

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