Elizabeth Ann
This is the tale of Elizabeth Ann,Who went away with her fancy man.
Ann was a girl who hadn’t a gownAs fine as the ladies who walk the town.
All day long from seven to sixAnn was polishing candlesticks,
For Bishops and crapulous MillionairesTo buy for their altars or bed-chambers.
And youth in a year and a year will pass,But there’s never an end of polishing brass.
All day long from seven to six--Seventy thousand candlesticks.
So frail and lewd Elizabeth AnnWent away with her fancy man.
You Bishops and crapulous Millionaires,Give her your charity, give her your prayers.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- crapulous a.
- Surcharged with liquor; sick from excessive indulgence in liquor; drunk; given to excesses. [L. crapulentus, crapulosus: cf. F. crapuleux.]
- lewd a.
- Not clerical; laic; laical; hence, unlearned; simple. [OE.lewed, lewd, lay, ignorant, vile, AS. l laical, belonging to the laity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Elizabeth Ann is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, 1908-1919, Project Gutenberg ebook #51575; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Drinkwater, Elizabeth Ann, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/elizabeth-ann.html, id L23052.
Form and metre
Elizabeth Ann is 16 lines in 8 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 88% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic 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 annA · manA
- 2 AA gownA · townA
- 3 AA sixA · candlesticksA
- 5 AA passA · brassA
- 6 AA sixA · candlesticksA
- 7 AA annA · manA
- 8 AA millionairesA · prayersA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| This is the tale of Elizabeth Ann, | 10 | ·····˘/˘˘· |
| Who went away with her fancy man. | 9 | ··˘/··/˘· |
| Ann was a girl who hadn’t a gown | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| As fine as the ladies who walk the town. | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| All day long from seven to six | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Ann was polishing candlesticks, | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| For Bishops and crapulous Millionaires | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| To buy for their altars or bed-chambers. | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| And youth in a year and a year will pass, | 10 | ·········· |
| But there’s never an end of polishing brass. | 10 | ··/···/˘˘· |
| All day long from seven to six-- | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Seventy thousand candlesticks. | 8 | /˘˘/˘/˘· |
| So frail and lewd Elizabeth Ann | 9 | ····˘/˘˘· |
| Went away with her fancy man. | 8 | ·˘/··/˘· |
| You Bishops and crapulous Millionaires, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Give her your charity, give her your prayers. | 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.