The Heir
See yon tall stripling! how he droops forlorn!How slow his pace! how spiritless his eye!Like a dark cloud in summer's rosy dawn,He saddens pleasure as he passes by.
Long kept in exile by paternal pride,He feels no joy beneath this splendid dome;For, till the elder child of promise died,He knew a dearer, though a humbler home.
Then the proud sail was spread! The youth obey'd,Left ev'ry friend, and every scene he knew;For ever left the soul-affianc'd maid,Though his heart sicken'd as he said--Adieu;And nurses still, with superstitious care,The sigh of fond remembrance and despair.
Words in this poem
- stripling n.
- A youth in the state of adolescence, or just passing from boyhood to manhood; a lad. [Dim. of strip; as if a small strip from the main stock or steam.]
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- humbler n.
- One who, or that which, humbles some one.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Heir is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #9998; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Matilda Betham, The Heir, in Poems (1808), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9998, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/betham-poems/the-heir.html, id L23510.
Form and metre
The Heir is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 -A-A forlorn · eyeA · dawn · byA
- 2 ABAB prideA · domeB · diedA · homeB
- 3 ABABCC obey'dA · knewB · maidA · adieuB · careC · despairC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| See yon tall stripling! how he droops forlorn! | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| How slow his pace! how spiritless his eye! | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Like a dark cloud in summer's rosy dawn, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| He saddens pleasure as he passes by. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Long kept in exile by paternal pride, | 10 | ···/··˘/˘· |
| He feels no joy beneath this splendid dome; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| For, till the elder child of promise died, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| He knew a dearer, though a humbler home. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Then the proud sail was spread! The youth obey'd, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Left ev'ry friend, and every scene he knew; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| For ever left the soul-affianc'd maid, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Though his heart sicken'd as he said--Adieu; | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And nurses still, with superstitious care, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| The sigh of fond remembrance and despair. | 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.