Illustrative Works
A. Engelbrecht. Die Consolatio Phil. der B. Sitzungsberichte derKön. Akad. Vienna, 1902.
Bardenhewer, Patrologie (Boethius und Cassiodor, pp. 584 sqq.).Freiburg im Breslau, 1894.
Hildebrand. Boethius und seine Stellung zum Christentum.Regensburg, 1885.
Fritz Klingner. De Boethii consolatione, Philol. Unters. xxvii.Berlin, 1921.
E.K. Rand. Der dem B. zugeschriebene Traktat de Fide catholica(Jahrbuch für kl. Phil. xxvi.). 1901.
Words in this poem
- berlin n.
- A four-wheeled carriage, having a sheltered seat behind the body and separate from it, invented in the 17th century, at Berlin. [The capital of Prussia]
- rand n.
- A border; edge; margin. [AS. rand, rond; akin to D., Dan., Sw., & G. rand, Icel. rönd, and probably to E. rind.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Illustrative Works is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy, Project Gutenberg ebook #13316; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Boethius, Illustrative Works, in The Consolation of Philosophy (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13316, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/boethius-consolation/illustrative-works.html, id L23700.
Form and metre
Illustrative Works is 10 lines in 5 stanzas of 2 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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.
- 2 AA — · —
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A. Engelbrecht. Die Consolatio Phil. der B. Sitzungsberichte der | 16 | ·/˘············· |
| Kön. Akad. Vienna, 1902. | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| Bardenhewer, Patrologie (Boethius und Cassiodor, pp. 584 sqq.). | 16 | ················ |
| Freiburg im Breslau, 1894. | 5 | ····· |
| Hildebrand. Boethius und seine Stellung zum Christentum. | 14 | /˘····/˘······ |
| Regensburg, 1885. | 3 | /˘˘ |
| Fritz Klingner. De Boethii consolatione, Philol. Unters. xxvii. | 15 | ··············· |
| Berlin, 1921. | 2 | ˘/ |
| E.K. Rand. Der dem B. zugeschriebene Traktat de Fide catholica | 18 | ·················· |
| (Jahrbuch für kl. Phil. xxvi.). 1901. | 6 | ······ |
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.