Vpon a Gnatt Burnt in a Candle
Little, buzzing, wanton elfePerish there, and thanke thy selfe.Thou deseru'st thy life to loose,For distracting such a Muse.Was it thy ambitious aimeBy thy death to purchase fame?Didst thou hope he would in pittyHaue bestow'd a funerall dittyOn thy ghoast? and thou in thatTo haue outliued Virgill's gnatt?No! The treason thou hast wroughtMight forbid thee such a thought.If that Night's worke doe miscarry,Or a syllable but vary;A greater foe thou shalt me find,The destruction of thy kind.Phoebus, to revenge thy fault,In a fiery trapp thee caught;That thy winged mates might know it,And not dare disturbe a poet.Deare and wretched was thy sport,Since thyselfe was crushed for't;Scarcely had that life a breath,Yet it found a double death;Playing in the golden flames,Thou fell'st into an inky Thames;Scorch'd and drown'd. That petty sunneA pretty Icarus hath vndone.
Words in this poem
- distracting a.
- Tending or serving to distract.
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- ditty n.
- A saying or utterance; especially, one that is short and frequently repeated; a theme. [OE. dite, OF. ditié, fr. L. dictatum, p. p. neut. of dictare to say often, dictate, compose. See Dictate, v. t.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- miscarry v. i.
- To carry, or go, wrong; to fail of reaching a destination, or fail of the intended effect; to be unsuccessful; to suffer defeat.
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- phoebus n.
- Apollo; the sun god.
- trapp v. t.
- To dress with ornaments; to adorn; -- said especially of horses. [Akin to OE. trappe trappings, and perhaps from an Old French word of the same origin as E. drab a kind of cloth.]
- deare
- variant of Dere, v. t. & n.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Vpon a Gnatt Burnt in a Candle is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, Volume I, Project Gutenberg ebook #38549; 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 Crashaw, Vpon a Gnatt Burnt in a Candle, in Steps to the Temple and Other Poems (1646–1652), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38549, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/crashaw-poems/vpon-a-gnatt-burnt-in-a-candle.html, id L12130.
Form and metre
Vpon a Gnatt Burnt in a Candle is 28 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.3 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 AA--BBCCDDEE--FF-E-EGGHH---- elfeA · selfeA · loose · muse · aimeB · fameB · pittyC · dittyC · thatD · gnattD · wroughtE · thoughtE · miscarry · vary · findF · kindF · fault · caughtE · it · poetE · sportG · for'tG · breathH · deathH · flames · thames · sunne · vndone
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Little, buzzing, wanton elfe | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Perish there, and thanke thy selfe. | 7 | /˘····· |
| Thou deseru'st thy life to loose, | 8 | ········ |
| For distracting such a Muse. | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Was it thy ambitious aime | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| By thy death to purchase fame? | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Didst thou hope he would in pitty | 8 | ········ |
| Haue bestow'd a funerall ditty | 9 | ·˘/·/˘˘/˘ |
| On thy ghoast? and thou in that | 7 | ······· |
| To haue outliued Virgill's gnatt? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| No! The treason thou hast wrought | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Might forbid thee such a thought. | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| If that Night's worke doe miscarry, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Or a syllable but vary; | 8 | ··/˘˘·/˘ |
| A greater foe thou shalt me find, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The destruction of thy kind. | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Phoebus, to revenge thy fault, | 7 | /˘·˘/·· |
| In a fiery trapp thee caught; | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| That thy winged mates might know it, | 7 | ······· |
| And not dare disturbe a poet. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Deare and wretched was thy sport, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Since thyselfe was crushed for't; | 6 | ······ |
| Scarcely had that life a breath, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Yet it found a double death; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Playing in the golden flames, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Thou fell'st into an inky Thames; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Scorch'd and drown'd. That petty sunne | 7 | ····/˘· |
| A pretty Icarus hath vndone. | 8 | ·/˘/·˘·· |
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.