Epitaph
Farewell, my best beloved! whose heavenly mindGenius with virtue, strength with softness join'd;Devotion, undebased by pride or art,With meek simplicity, and joy of heart:Though sprightly, gentle; though polite, sincere;And only of thyself a judge severe:Unblamed, unequall'd in each sphere of life,The tenderest daughter, sister, parent, wife.In thee, their patroness the afflicted lost;Thy friends their pattern, ornament, and boast;And I--but ah, can words my loss declare,Or paint the extremes of transport and despair!O thou, beyond what verse or speech can tell--My guide, my friend, my best beloved, farewell!
Words in this poem
- polite a.
- Smooth; polished. [L. politus, p. p. of polire to polish: cf. F. poli. See Polish, v.]
- patroness n.
- A female patron or helper. [Cf. F. patronnesse.]
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.html, id L18631.
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 85%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 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 mindA · join'dA · artB · heartB · sincereC · severeC · lifeD · wifeD · lostE · boastE · declareF · despairF · tellG · farewellG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Farewell, my best beloved! whose heavenly mind | 10 | ·/··˘/·/˘· |
| Genius with virtue, strength with softness join'd; | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Devotion, undebased by pride or art, | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| With meek simplicity, and joy of heart: | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| Though sprightly, gentle; though polite, sincere; | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘/ |
| And only of thyself a judge severe: | 10 | ·/˘·˘/··˘/ |
| Unblamed, unequall'd in each sphere of life, | 10 | ·········· |
| The tenderest daughter, sister, parent, wife. | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| In thee, their patroness the afflicted lost; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Thy friends their pattern, ornament, and boast; | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| And I--but ah, can words my loss declare, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Or paint the extremes of transport and despair! | 11 | ···˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| O thou, beyond what verse or speech can tell-- | 10 | ·········· |
| My guide, my friend, my best beloved, farewell! | 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.