Epitaphs
Fight well, my comrades, and prove your bravery. Me tooGod call'd out, but crown'd early before the battle.
I died in very flow'r: yet call me not unhappy therefore,Ye that against sweet life once a lament have utter'd.
When thou, my belovèd, diedst, I saw heaven open,And all earthly delight inhabiting Paradise.
Where thou art better I too were, dearest, anywhere, thanWanting thy well-lov'd lovely presence anywhere.
About this text
Epitaphs is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Excluding the Eight Dramas, Project Gutenberg ebook #37804; 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 Bridges, Epitaphs, in Poetical Works (1873–1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37804, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bridges-shorter-poems/epitaphs.html, id L01857.
Form and metre
Epitaphs is 8 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 76% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.6 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Fight well, my comrades, and prove your bravery. Me too | 12 | ···/····/˘·· |
| God call'd out, but crown'd early before the battle. | 12 | ·····/˘···/˘ |
| I died in very flow'r: yet call me not unhappy therefore, | 15 | ···/˘·····˘/˘·· |
| Ye that against sweet life once a lament have utter'd. | 13 | ········˘/·/˘ |
| When thou, my belovèd, diedst, I saw heaven open, | 11 | ········//˘ |
| And all earthly delight inhabiting Paradise. | 12 | ··/˘˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| Where thou art better I too were, dearest, anywhere, than | 14 | ···/˘···/˘/˘·· |
| Wanting thy well-lov'd lovely presence anywhere. | 12 | /˘···/˘/˘/˘· |
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.