The Deliberation
'Have you forgot, Kate, prithee say,'How many Seasons here we've tarry'd?'Tis Forty years, this very day,'Since you and I, old Girl, were married
'Look out;--the Sun shines warm and bright,'The Stiles are low, the paths all dry;'I know you cut your corns last night:'Come; be as free from care as I.
'For I'm resolv'd once more to see'That place where we so often met;'Though few have had more cares than we,'We've none just now to make us fret.'
Kate scorn'd to damp the generous flameThat warm'd her aged Partner's breast;Yet, ere determination came,She thus some trifling doubts express'd.
Words in this poem
- kate n.
- The brambling finch.
- prithee interj.
- A corruption of pray thee; as, I prithee; generally used without I.
- generous a.
- Of honorable birth or origin; highborn. [F. généreux, fr. L. generous of noble birth, noble, excellent, magnanimous, fr. genus birth, race: cf. It. generoso. See 2d Gender.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Deliberation is in the public domain. This text is taken from Rural Tales, Ballads, and Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #9093; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Bloomfield, The Deliberation, in Rural Tales, Ballads and Songs (1802), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9093, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bloomfield-tales/the-deliberation.html, id L09664.
Form and metre
The Deliberation is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 19% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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- sayA · tarry'd · dayA · married
- 2 ABAB brightA · dryB · nightA · iB
- 3 ABAB seeA · metB · weA · fretB
- 4 ABAB flameA · breastB · cameA · express'dB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 'Have you forgot, Kate, prithee say, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| 'How many Seasons here we've tarry'd? | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| 'Tis Forty years, this very day, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| 'Since you and I, old Girl, were married | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| 'Look out;--the Sun shines warm and bright, | 8 | ········ |
| 'The Stiles are low, the paths all dry; | 8 | ········ |
| 'I know you cut your corns last night: | 8 | ········ |
| 'Come; be as free from care as I. | 8 | ········ |
| 'For I'm resolv'd once more to see | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| 'That place where we so often met; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| 'Though few have had more cares than we, | 8 | ········ |
| 'We've none just now to make us fret.' | 8 | ········ |
| Kate scorn'd to damp the generous flame | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| That warm'd her aged Partner's breast; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Yet, ere determination came, | 8 | ··˘·˘/˘· |
| She thus some trifling doubts express'd. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
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.