"All Is Vanity, Saith the Preacher" I
Fame, Wisdom, Love, and Power were mine,And Health and Youth possessed me;My goblets blushed from every vine,And lovely forms caressed me;I sunned my heart in Beauty's eyes,And felt my soul grow tender;All Earth can give, or mortal prize,Was mine of regal splendour.
Words in this poem
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
"All Is Vanity, Saith the Preacher" I is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 3, Project Gutenberg ebook #21811; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lord Byron, "All Is Vanity, Saith the Preacher" I, in The Giaour, and Other Poems (1816), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21811, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-works-3/all-is-vanity-saith-the-preacher-i.html, id L23953.
Form and metre
"All Is Vanity, Saith the Preacher" I is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 97%).
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 ABABCDCD mineA · meB · vineA · meB · eyesC · tenderD · prizeC · splendourD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fame, Wisdom, Love, and Power were mine, | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| And Health and Youth possessed me; | 7 | ····˘/· |
| My goblets blushed from every vine, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And lovely forms caressed me; | 7 | ·/˘·˘/· |
| I sunned my heart in Beauty's eyes, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And felt my soul grow tender; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| All Earth can give, or mortal prize, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Was mine of regal splendour. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
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.