Variations
E'en now regardful of his doomApplauding Honour haunts his tomb,With shadowy trophies crown'd:Whilst Freedom's form beside her roves,Majestic through the twilight groves,And calls her heroes round.
O'er him, whose doom thy virtues grieve,Aërial forms shall sit at eve,And bend the pensive head;And, fallen to save his injured land,Imperial Honour's awful handShall point his lonely bed.
Words in this poem
- regardful a.
- Heedful; attentive; observant.
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Variations is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of William Collins; With a Memoir, Project Gutenberg ebook #29879; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Collins, Variations, in Poetical Works (1746), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29879, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/collins-poems/variations.html, id L13349.
Form and metre
Variations is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABCCB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 17% 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 AABCCB doomA · tombA · crown'dB · rovesC · grovesC · roundB
- 2 AABCCB grieveA · eveA · headB · landC · handC · bedB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| E'en now regardful of his doom | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Applauding Honour haunts his tomb, | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| With shadowy trophies crown'd: | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| Whilst Freedom's form beside her roves, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Majestic through the twilight groves, | 8 | ˘/˘··/·· |
| And calls her heroes round. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| O'er him, whose doom thy virtues grieve, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Aërial forms shall sit at eve, | 7 | ······· |
| And bend the pensive head; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And, fallen to save his injured land, | 10 | ·/˘···/˘˘· |
| Imperial Honour's awful hand | 9 | ˘/˘˘/˘/˘· |
| Shall point his lonely bed. | 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.