Postscript
Permit me--if you do not mind--To add it would be screaming funIf, after printing this, I findThem after all at 81.
Or 70 or 63,Or 55 or 44,Or 39 and going free,Or 28--or even more.
No matter--take no more adviceFrom doubtful and intriguing men.Refuse the stuff at any price,And slowly watch them fall to 10.
Meanwhile I feel a certain zestIn writing once again the newRefrain that all is for the best,And Consols are at 82.
Words in this poem
- screaming a.
- Uttering screams; shrieking.
- meanwhile n.
- The intervening time; as, in the meantime (or mean time).
- zest n.
- A piece of orange or lemon peel, or the aromatic oil which may be squeezed from such peel, used to give flavor to liquor, etc. [F. zeste, probably fr. L. schistos split, cleft, divided, Gr. Schism.]
- consols n.
- The leading British funded government security. [A contraction of consolidated (annuities).]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Postscript is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #60663; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Hilaire Belloc, Postscript, in Sonnets and Verse (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/belloc-sonnets-verse/postscript.html, id L21697.
Form and metre
Postscript is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See 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 A-A- mindA · fun · findA · —
- 2 AA-- — · — · free · more
- 3 A-A- adviceA · men · priceA · —
- 4 A-A- zestA · new · bestA · —
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Permit me--if you do not mind-- | 8 | ˘/······ |
| To add it would be screaming fun | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| If, after printing this, I find | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Them after all at 81. | 5 | ····· |
| Or 70 or 63, | 2 | ·· |
| Or 55 or 44, | 2 | ·· |
| Or 39 and going free, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Or 28--or even more. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| No matter--take no more advice | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| From doubtful and intriguing men. | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Refuse the stuff at any price, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| And slowly watch them fall to 10. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Meanwhile I feel a certain zest | 8 | /····/˘· |
| In writing once again the new | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Refrain that all is for the best, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| And Consols are at 82. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
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.