Portrait of a Boy
After the whipping he crawled into bed,Accepting the harsh fact with no great weeping.How funny uncle's hat had looked striped red!He chuckled silently. The moon came, sweepingA black, frayed rag of tattered cloud beforeIn scorning; very pure and pale she seemed,Flooding his bed with radiance. On the floorFat motes danced. He sobbed, closed his eyes and dreamed.
Warm sand flowed round him. Blurts of crimson lightSplashed the white grains like blood. Past the cave's mouthShone with a large, fierce splendor, wildly bright,The crooked constellations of the South;Here the Cross swung; and there, affronting Mars,The Centaur stormed aside a froth of stars.Within, great casks, like wattled aldermen,Sighed of enormous feasts, and cloth of goldGlowed on the walls like hot desire. Again,Beside webbed purples from some galleon's hold,A black chest bore the skull and bones in whiteAbove a scrawled "Gunpowder!" By the flames,Decked out in crimson, gemmed with syenite,Hailing their fellows with outrageous names,The pirates sat and diced. Their eyes were moons."Doubloons!" they said. The words crashed gold. "Doubloons!"
Words in this poem
- funny a.
- Droll; comical; amusing; laughable. Funny bone. See crazy bone, under Crazy. [From Fun.]
- flooding n.
- The filling or covering with water or other fluid; overflow; inundation; the filling anything to excess.
- centaur n.
- A fabulous being, represented as half man and half horse.
- wattled a.
- Furnished with wattles, or pendent fleshy processes at the chin or throat.
- outrageous a.
- Of the nature of an outrage; exceeding the limits of right, reason, or decency; involving or doing an outrage; furious; violent; atrocious. [OF. outrageus, F. outrageux. See Outrage, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Portrait of a Boy is in the public domain. This text is taken from Young Adventure: A Book of Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #312; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Stephen Vincent Benét, Portrait of a Boy, in Young Adventure (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #312, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/benet-young-adventure/portrait-of-a-boy.html, id L13404.
Form and metre
Portrait of a Boy is 24 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABABCDCD bedA · weepingB · redA · sweepingB · beforeC · seemedD · floorC · dreamedD
- 2 ABABCCDEDEAFAFGG lightA · mouthB · brightA · southB · marsC · starsC · aldermenD · goldE · againD · holdE · whiteA · flamesF · syeniteA · namesF · moonsG · doubloonsG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| After the whipping he crawled into bed, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Accepting the harsh fact with no great weeping. | 11 | ˘/˘······/˘ |
| How funny uncle's hat had looked striped red! | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| He chuckled silently. The moon came, sweeping | 11 | ·/˘/˘˘···/˘ |
| A black, frayed rag of tattered cloud before | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| In scorning; very pure and pale she seemed, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Flooding his bed with radiance. On the floor | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Fat motes danced. He sobbed, closed his eyes and dreamed. | 10 | ·········· |
| Warm sand flowed round him. Blurts of crimson light | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Splashed the white grains like blood. Past the cave's mouth | 10 | ·········· |
| Shone with a large, fierce splendor, wildly bright, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| The crooked constellations of the South; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Here the Cross swung; and there, affronting Mars, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| The Centaur stormed aside a froth of stars. | 10 | ·/··˘/···· |
| Within, great casks, like wattled aldermen, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Sighed of enormous feasts, and cloth of gold | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Glowed on the walls like hot desire. Again, | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| Beside webbed purples from some galleon's hold, | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| A black chest bore the skull and bones in white | 10 | ·········· |
| Above a scrawled "Gunpowder!" By the flames, | 10 | ····/·˘··· |
| Decked out in crimson, gemmed with syenite, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Hailing their fellows with outrageous names, | 10 | /˘·/˘·˘/˘· |
| The pirates sat and diced. Their eyes were moons. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| "Doubloons!" they said. The words crashed gold. "Doubloons!" | 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.