For a Birthday
I WISH thee sound health and true sanity,Ripe youth, a summer heart in age’s snow,Abiding joy in knowledge, wealth enowThat of the best thou ne’er mayst hindered be;Long life, love, marriage, children, faithful friends,Purpose in all thy doing, stintless zeal,Ambition, enthusiasm, the power to feelThy country dearer than thy private ends;The threefold joy of Nature, books, and fun,To be thy solace in adversity,To keep thy father’s name as clean as he,And so transmit it stainless to thy son;And lastly, crown of glory and of strife,May honored death give thee Eternal Life.
Now count my wishes, and, the numbering done,You’ll find the enumeration—twenty-one.
Words in this poem
- sanity n.
- The condition or quality of being sane; soundness of health of body or mind, especially of the mind; saneness. [L. saniras, from sanus sound, healthy. See Sane.]
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- enow
- A form of Enough.
- stintless a.
- Without stint or restraint.
- solace n.
- Comfort in grief; alleviation of grief or anxiety; also, that which relieves in distress; that which cheers or consoles; relief. [OF. solas, ssoulaz, L. solacium, solatium, fr. solari to comfort, console. Cf. Console, v. t.]
- adversity n.
- Opposition; contrariety. Wyclif. [OE. adversite, F. adversité, fr. L. adversitas.]
- stainless a.
- Free from stain; immaculate.
- lastly adv.
- In the last place; in conclusion.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
For a Birthday is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Few More Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #49518; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Susan Coolidge, For a Birthday, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/for-a-birthday.html, id L23481.
Form and metre
For a Birthday is 16 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ---ABCCBD-ADEE sanity · snow · enow · beA · friendsB · zealC · feelC · endsB · funD · adversity · heA · sonD · strifeE · lifeE
- 2 AA doneA · oneA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I WISH thee sound health and true sanity, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Ripe youth, a summer heart in age’s snow, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Abiding joy in knowledge, wealth enow | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| That of the best thou ne’er mayst hindered be; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Long life, love, marriage, children, faithful friends, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Purpose in all thy doing, stintless zeal, | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| Ambition, enthusiasm, the power to feel | 12 | ˘/˘˘/˘·˘·/·· |
| Thy country dearer than thy private ends; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| The threefold joy of Nature, books, and fun, | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| To be thy solace in adversity, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| To keep thy father’s name as clean as he, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And so transmit it stainless to thy son; | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| And lastly, crown of glory and of strife, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| May honored death give thee Eternal Life. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Now count my wishes, and, the numbering done, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| You’ll find the enumeration—twenty-one. | 11 | ···˘·˘/˘/˘· |
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.