Iii.—2
Mark, how the dread Pantheon stands,Amid the domes of modern hands:Amid the toys of idle state,How simply, how severely great!Then turn, and, while each western climePresents her tuneful sons to Time,So mark thou Milton's name;And add, 'Thus differs from the throngThe spirit which inform'd thy awful song,Which bade thy potent voice protect thy country's fame.'
Words in this poem
- pantheon n.
- A temple dedicated to all the gods; especially, the building so called at Rome. [L. pantheon, pantheum, Gr. panthéon. See Pan-, and Theism.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- clime n.
- A climate; a tract or region of the earth. See Climate. [L. clima. See Climate.]
- tuneful a.
- Harmonious; melodious; musical; as, tuneful notes.
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Iii.—2 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.—2, in The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside (1744), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9814, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/akenside-poems/iii-2-3.html, id L09520.
Form and metre
Iii.—2 is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 60% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABBCCDEED standsA · handsA · stateB · greatB · climeC · timeC · nameD · throngE · songE · fameD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mark, how the dread Pantheon stands, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Amid the domes of modern hands: | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| Amid the toys of idle state, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| How simply, how severely great! | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Then turn, and, while each western clime | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Presents her tuneful sons to Time, | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| So mark thou Milton's name; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And add, 'Thus differs from the throng | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The spirit which inform'd thy awful song, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Which bade thy potent voice protect thy country's fame.' | 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.