A Dedication
Take these rhymes into thy grace,Since they are of thy begetting,Lady, that dost make each placeWhere thou art a jewel's setting.
Some such glamour lend this Book:Let it be thy poet's wagesThat henceforth thy gracious lookLies reflected on its pages.
Words in this poem
- glamour n.
- A charm affecting the eye, making objects appear different from what they really are. [Scot. glamour, glamer; cf. Icel. glámeggdr one who is troubled with the glaucoma; or Icel. glam-s weakness of sight, glamour; glamr name of the moon, also of a ]
- henceforth adv.
- From this time forward; henceforward.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Dedication is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Sisters' Tragedy, with Other Poems, Lyrical and Dramatic, Project Gutenberg ebook #595; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Bailey Aldrich, A Dedication, in The Sisters' Tragedy, with Other Poems (1891), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #595, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/aldrich-poems/a-dedication.html, id L10768.
Form and metre
A Dedication is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABAB graceA · begettingB · placeA · settingB
- 2 ABAB bookA · wagesB · lookA · pagesB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Take these rhymes into thy grace, | 7 | ······· |
| Since they are of thy begetting, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Lady, that dost make each place | 7 | /˘····· |
| Where thou art a jewel's setting. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Some such glamour lend this Book: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Let it be thy poet's wages | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| That henceforth thy gracious look | 7 | ·//·/˘· |
| Lies reflected on its pages. | 8 | ·˘/˘··/˘ |
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.