A Case of Conscience I
'You must have had a charming walk, Mademoiselle. I have seldom seenPloumariel look better.'
'Ah, don't be paltry,' cried the other, quickly. 'You know my meaning.To be very plain, Sebastian, are you quite justified in playing withthat charming girl, in compromising her?'
Words in this poem
- mademoiselle n.
- A French title of courtesy given to a girl or an unmarried lady, equivalent to the English Miss. Goldsmith. [F., fr. ma my, f. of mon + demoiselle young lady. See Damsel.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Case of Conscience I is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson, With a Memoir by Arthur Symons, Project Gutenberg ebook #8497; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ernest Dowson, A Case of Conscience I, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/a-case-of-conscience-i.html, id L01694.
Form and metre
A Case of Conscience I is 5 lines in 2 stanzas. The lines average 13.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| 'You must have had a charming walk, Mademoiselle. I have seldom seen | 16 | ·····/˘··˘/··/˘· |
| Ploumariel look better.' | 6 | ····/˘ |
| 'Ah, don't be paltry,' cried the other, quickly. 'You know my meaning. | 16 | ···/˘··/˘/˘···/˘ |
| To be very plain, Sebastian, are you quite justified in playing with | 18 | ··/˘·˘/˘···/˘··/˘· |
| that charming girl, in compromising her?' | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘· |
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.