Iii.—1
Thee too, protectress of my lays,Elate with whose majestic callAbove degenerate Latium's praise,Above the slavish boast of Gaul,I dare from impious thrones reclaim,And wanton sloth's ignoble charms,The honours of a poet's nameTo Somers' counsels, or to Hampden's arms,Thee, Freedom, I rejoin, and bless thy genuine flame.
Words in this poem
- protectress n.
- A woman who protects. [NL. protectrix.]
- elate a.
- Lifted up; raised; elevated. [L. elatus elevated, fig., elated, proud (the figure, perh., being borrowed from a prancing horse); e out + latus (used as p. p. of ferre to bear), for tlatus, a]
- rejoin v. t.
- To join again; to unite after separation. [F. rejoindre; pref. re- re- + joindre to join. See Join, and cf. Rejoinder.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Iii.—1 is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside, Project Gutenberg ebook #9814; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mark Akenside, Iii.—1, in The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside (1744), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9814, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/akenside-poems/iii-1.html, id L09505.
Form and metre
Iii.—1 is 9 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.9 syllables. 22% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABABCDCDC laysA · callB · praiseA · gaulB · reclaimC · charmsD · nameC · armsD · flameC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Thee too, protectress of my lays, | 8 | ········ |
| Elate with whose majestic call | 8 | ˘/··˘/˘· |
| Above degenerate Latium's praise, | 9 | ··˘/˘···· |
| Above the slavish boast of Gaul, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I dare from impious thrones reclaim, | 9 | ···˘/˘·˘/ |
| And wanton sloth's ignoble charms, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| The honours of a poet's name | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To Somers' counsels, or to Hampden's arms, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Thee, Freedom, I rejoin, and bless thy genuine flame. | 12 | ·/˘·˘/···/˘· |
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.