To My Friend Charles Booth Nettleton II
Enrapt, the queen gazed on her glorious self,Then trembling with the thrill of sudden thought,Commanded that the skilful wight be broughtThat she might dower him with lands and pelf.Then out upon the silent sea-lapt shelfAnd up the hills and on the downs they soughtHim who so well and wondrously had wrought;And with much search found and brought home the elf.But he put by all gifts with sad replies,And from his lips these words flowed forth like wine:"O queen, I want no gift but thee," he said.She heard and looked on him with love-lit eyes,Gave him her hand, low murmuring, "I am thine,"And at the morrow's dawning they were wed.
Words in this poem
- enrapt p. a.
- Thrown into ecstasy; transported; enraptured. [Pref. en- + rapt. Cf. Enravish.]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- wight n.
- A whit; a bit; a jot. [OE. wight, wiht, a wight, a whit, AS. wiht, wuht, a creature, a thing; skin to D. wicht a child, OS. & OHG. wiht a creature, thing, G. wicht a creature, Icel. v]
- pelf n.
- Money; riches; lucre; gain; -- generally conveying the idea of something ill-gotten or worthless. It has no plural. [OE. pelfir booty, OF. pelfre, akin to pelfrer to plunder, and perh. to E. pillage. Cf. Pilfer.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To My Friend Charles Booth Nettleton II is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, To My Friend Charles Booth Nettleton II, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/to-my-friend-charles-booth-nettleton-ii.html, id L00539.
Form and metre
To My Friend Charles Booth Nettleton II is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDECDE, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other Italian sonnets, 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 ABBAABBACDECDE selfA · thoughtB · broughtB · pelfA · shelfA · soughtB · wroughtB · elfA · repliesC · wineD · saidE · eyesC · thineD · wedE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Enrapt, the queen gazed on her glorious self, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Then trembling with the thrill of sudden thought, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Commanded that the skilful wight be brought | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| That she might dower him with lands and pelf. | 9 | ········· |
| Then out upon the silent sea-lapt shelf | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And up the hills and on the downs they sought | 10 | ·········· |
| Him who so well and wondrously had wrought; | 10 | ·········· |
| And with much search found and brought home the elf. | 10 | ·········· |
| But he put by all gifts with sad replies, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And from his lips these words flowed forth like wine: | 10 | ·········· |
| "O queen, I want no gift but thee," he said. | 10 | ·········· |
| She heard and looked on him with love-lit eyes, | 10 | ·········· |
| Gave him her hand, low murmuring, "I am thine," | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And at the morrow's dawning they were wed. | 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.