"All Is Vanity, Saith the Preacher" II
I strive to number o'er what dayslsRemembrance can discover,Which all that Life or Earth displaysWould lure me to live over.There rose no day, there rolled no hourOf pleasure unembittered;And not a trapping decked my PowerThat galled not while it glittered.
Words in this poem
- discover v. i.
- To discover or show one's self.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
"All Is Vanity, Saith the Preacher" II 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" II, 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-ii.html, id L23954.
Form and metre
"All Is Vanity, Saith the Preacher" II is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 98%).
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- daysls · discover · displays · over · hourA · unembittered · powerA · glittered
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I strive to number o'er what daysls | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Remembrance can discover, | 7 | ˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Which all that Life or Earth displays | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Would lure me to live over. | 7 | ······· |
| There rose no day, there rolled no hour | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Of pleasure unembittered; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And not a trapping decked my Power | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| That galled not while it glittered. | 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.