See the Life of the Bishop
This poem, which is in some manuscripts attributed to WilliamStroude, has already been printed in the Topographer of my veryintelligent friend, Samuel Egerton Brydges, esq. vol. ii. p. 112.
Greenham had pastures green,But sheep full lean.
Words in this poem
- topographer n.
- One who is skilled in the science of topography; one who describes a particular place, town, city, or tract of land.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
See the Life of the Bishop is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Richard Corbet, late bishop of Oxford and of Norwich 4th edition, Project Gutenberg ebook #65375; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Richard Corbet, See the Life of the Bishop, in Poems (1647), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #65375, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/corbet-poems/see-the-life-of-the-bishop.html, id L08927.
Form and metre
See the Life of the Bishop is 5 lines in 2 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter. 67% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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.
- 2 AA greenA · leanA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| This poem, which is in some manuscripts attributed to William | 15 | ·/····/˘·˘/˘·/˘ |
| Stroude, has already been printed in the Topographer of my very | 18 | ··˘/˘·/˘··˘/˘˘··/˘ |
| intelligent friend, Samuel Egerton Brydges, esq. vol. ii. p. 112. | 14 | ˘/˘·/˘/˘/˘···· |
| Greenham had pastures green, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| But sheep full lean. | 4 | ···· |
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.