Epitaph
O thou! whose steps in sacred reverence treadThese lone dominions of the silent dead;On this sad stone a pious look bestow,Nor uninstructed read this tale of woe;And while the sigh of sorrow heaves thy breast,Let each rebellious murmur be suppress'd;Heaven's hidden ways to trace, for us how vain!Heaven's wise decrees, how impious to arraign!Pure from the stains of a polluted age,In early bloom of life they left the stage:Not doom'd in lingering woe to waste their breath,One moment snatch'd them from the power of Death:They lived united, and united died;Happy the friends whom Death cannot divide!
Words in this poem
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- heaves n.
- A disease of horses, characterized by difficult breathing, with heaving of the flank, wheezing, flatulency, and a peculiar cough; broken wind.
- rebellious a.
- Engaged in rebellion; disposed to rebel of the nature of rebels or of rebellion; resisting government or lawful authority by force.
- arraign v. t.
- To call or set as a prisoner at the bar of a court to answer to the matter charged in an indictment or complaint. Blackstone. [OE. arainen, arenen, OF. aragnier, aranier, araisnier, F. arraisonner, fr. LL. arrationare to address to call before court; L. ad + ratio reason, reasoning, LL.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epitaph is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer With Lives, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes, Project Gutenberg ebook #8695; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Beattie, Epitaph, in The Minstrel and Other Poems (1771–1774), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8695, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/beattie-minstrel/epitaph-2.html, id L18632.
Form and metre
Epitaph is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG treadA · deadA · bestowB · woeB · breastC · suppress'dC · vainD · arraignD · ageE · stageE · breathF · deathF · diedG · divideG
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O thou! whose steps in sacred reverence tread | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| These lone dominions of the silent dead; | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| On this sad stone a pious look bestow, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Nor uninstructed read this tale of woe; | 10 | ·········· |
| And while the sigh of sorrow heaves thy breast, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Let each rebellious murmur be suppress'd; | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Heaven's hidden ways to trace, for us how vain! | 11 | /˘/˘······· |
| Heaven's wise decrees, how impious to arraign! | 12 | /˘·˘/·˘/˘·˘/ |
| Pure from the stains of a polluted age, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| In early bloom of life they left the stage: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Not doom'd in lingering woe to waste their breath, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| One moment snatch'd them from the power of Death: | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| They lived united, and united died; | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Happy the friends whom Death cannot divide! | 10 | /˘····/˘˘/ |
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.