On the Birth of a Friend's Child
Mark the day white, on which the Fates have smiled:Eugenio and Egeria have a child.On whom abundant grace kind Jove impartsIf she but copy either parent's parts.Then, Muses! long devoted to her race,Grant her Egeria's virtues and her face;Nor stop your bounty there, but add to itEugenio's learning and Eugenio's wit.
Words in this poem
- jove n.
- The chief divinity of the ancient Romans; Jupiter. [L. Jupiter, gen. Jovis, OL. Jovis, nom. & gen. for Djovis; akin to E. Tuesday. See Tuesday, and cf. Jupiter.]
- bounty n.
- Goodness, kindness; virtue; worth. [OE. bounte goodness, kindness, F. bonté, fr. L. bonitas, fr. bonus good, for older duonus; cf. Skr. duvas honor, respect.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Birth of a Friend's Child 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, On the Birth of a Friend's Child, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/on-the-birth-of-a-friend-s-child.html, id L01648.
Form and metre
On the Birth of a Friend's Child is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABBCCDD smiledA · childA · impartsB · partsB · raceC · faceC · itD · witD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mark the day white, on which the Fates have smiled: | 10 | ·········· |
| Eugenio and Egeria have a child. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| On whom abundant grace kind Jove imparts | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| If she but copy either parent's parts. | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Then, Muses! long devoted to her race, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Grant her Egeria's virtues and her face; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Nor stop your bounty there, but add to it | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Eugenio's learning and Eugenio's wit. | 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.