Annus Mirabilis: An Historical Poem
Descriptas servare vices operumque colores,Cur ego, si nequeo ignoroque, Poeta salutor?
--lumenque juventæPurpureum, et lætos oculis afflârat honores:Quale manus addunt ebori decus, aut ubi flavoArgentum Pariusve lapis circundatur auro.
Dixeris egregiè, notum si callida verbumReddiderit junctura novum--
Et nova, fictaque nuper, habebunt verba fidem, siGræco fonte cadunt, parcè detorta--
Words in this poem
- manus n.
- The distal segment of the fore limb, including the carpus and fore foot or hand. [L., the hand.]
- novum n.
- A game at dice, properly called novem quinque (L., nine five), the two principal throws being nine and five.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Annus Mirabilis: An Historical Poem is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Volume 1 With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes, Project Gutenberg ebook #11488; 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 Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: An Historical Poem, in Absalom and Achitophel, and Other Poems (1660–1700), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #11488, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dryden-poems/annus-mirabilis-an-historical-poem.html, id L17461.
Form and metre
Annus Mirabilis: An Historical Poem is 10 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
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. Read against iambic heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Descriptas servare vices operumque colores, | 12 | ·····/˘···/˘ |
| Cur ego, si nequeo ignoroque, Poeta salutor? | 14 | ·/˘··········· |
| --lumenque juventæ | 4 | ···· |
| Purpureum, et lætos oculis afflârat honores: | 14 | ············/˘ |
| Quale manus addunt ebori decus, aut ubi flavo | 15 | ·/˘············ |
| Argentum Pariusve lapis circundatur auro. | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| Dixeris egregiè, notum si callida verbum | 14 | ······/˘······ |
| Reddiderit junctura novum-- | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Et nova, fictaque nuper, habebunt verba fidem, si | 15 | ·/˘·······/˘··· |
| Græco fonte cadunt, parcè detorta-- | 9 | ········· |
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.