The Menu
I beg you come to-night and dine.A welcome waits you, and sound wine--The Roederer chilly to a charm,As Juno's breath the claret warm,The sherry of an ancient brand.No Persian pomp, you understand--A soup, a fish, two meats, and thenA salad fit for aldermen(When aldermen, alas, the days!Were really worth their mayonnaise);A dish of grapes whose clusters wonTheir bronze in Carolinian sun;Next, cheese--for you the Neufchatel,A bit of Cheshire likes me well;Cafe au lait or coffee black,With Kirsch or Kummel or Cognac(The German band in Irving PlaceBy this time purple in the face);Cigars and pipes. These being through,Friends shall drop in, a very few--Shakespeare and Milton, and no more.When these are guests I bolt the door,With Not at Home to any oneExcepting Alfred Tennyson.
Words in this poem
- dine v. i.
- To eat the principal regular meal of the day; to take dinner. [F. dîner, OF. disner, LL. disnare, contr. fr. an assumed disjunare; dis- + an assumed junare (OF. juner) to fast, for L. jejunare, fr. jejunus fasting. See Jeju]
- claret n.
- The name firat given in England to the red wines of M [OE. claret, clare, clarry, OF. claret, clar, fr. cler, F. clair, clear, fr. L. clarus clear. See Clear.]
- carolinian n.
- A native or inhabitant of north or South Carolina.
- neufchatel n.
- A kind of soft sweet-milk cheese; -- so called from Neufchâtel- en-Bray in France.
- cafe n.
- A coffeehouse; a restaurant; also, a room in a hotel or restaurant where coffee and liquors are served. [F. See Coffee.]
- kummel n.
- A Russian and German liqueur, consisting of a sweetened spirit flavored with caraway seeds. [G. kümmel cumin, caraway seed, L. cuminum. Cf. Cumin.]
- cognac n.
- A kind of French brandy, so called from the town of Cognac. [F.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Menu 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, The Menu, in The Sisters' Tragedy, with Other Poems (1891), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #595, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/aldrich-poems/the-menu.html, id L10774.
Form and metre
The Menu is 24 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 92% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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 AA--BBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJEE dineA · wineA · charm · warm · brandB · understandB · thenC · aldermenC · daysD · mayonnaiseD · wonE · sunE · neufchatelF · wellF · blackG · cognacG · placeH · faceH · throughI · fewI · moreJ · doorJ · oneE · tennysonE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I beg you come to-night and dine. | 8 | ········ |
| A welcome waits you, and sound wine-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The Roederer chilly to a charm, | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘··· |
| As Juno's breath the claret warm, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The sherry of an ancient brand. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| No Persian pomp, you understand-- | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| A soup, a fish, two meats, and then | 8 | ········ |
| A salad fit for aldermen | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| (When aldermen, alas, the days! | 8 | ·/˘˘˘/·· |
| Were really worth their mayonnaise); | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A dish of grapes whose clusters won | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Their bronze in Carolinian sun; | 9 | ····˘/˘˘· |
| Next, cheese--for you the Neufchatel, | 8 | ········ |
| A bit of Cheshire likes me well; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Cafe au lait or coffee black, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| With Kirsch or Kummel or Cognac | 8 | ···/˘·/· |
| (The German band in Irving Place | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| By this time purple in the face); | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Cigars and pipes. These being through, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| Friends shall drop in, a very few-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Shakespeare and Milton, and no more. | 8 | /··/˘··· |
| When these are guests I bolt the door, | 8 | ········ |
| With Not at Home to any one | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Excepting Alfred Tennyson. | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘/˘˘ |
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.