Horace to Pyrrha
What perfumed, posie-dizened sirrah,With smiles for diet,Clasps you, O fair but faithless Pyrrha,On the quiet?For whom do you bind up your tresses,As spun-gold yellow,--Meshes that go, with your caresses,To snare a fellow?
How will he rail at fate capricious,And curse you duly!Yet now he deems your wiles delicious,You perfect, truly!Pyrrha, your love's a treacherous ocean;He'll soon fall in there!Then shall I gloat on his commotion,For I have been there!
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- gloat v. i.
- To look steadfastly; to gaz In vengeance gloating on another's pain. [Akin to Icel. glotta to smile scornfully, G. glotzen to gloat.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Horace to Pyrrha is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Little Book of Western Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #9606; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eugene Field, Horace to Pyrrha, in A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9606, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-western-verse/horace-to-pyrrha.html, id L24657.
Form and metre
Horace to Pyrrha is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See 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 -A-ABCBC sirrah · dietA · pyrrha · quietA · tressesB · yellowC · caressesB · fellowC
- 2 ABABCDCD capriciousA · dulyB · deliciousA · trulyB · oceanC · thereD · commotionC · thereD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What perfumed, posie-dizened sirrah, | 9 | ·˘/····/˘ |
| With smiles for diet, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Clasps you, O fair but faithless Pyrrha, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| On the quiet? | 4 | ··/˘ |
| For whom do you bind up your tresses, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| As spun-gold yellow,-- | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Meshes that go, with your caresses, | 9 | /˘····˘/˘ |
| To snare a fellow? | 5 | ···/˘ |
| How will he rail at fate capricious, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| And curse you duly! | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Yet now he deems your wiles delicious, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| You perfect, truly! | 5 | ·/·/˘ |
| Pyrrha, your love's a treacherous ocean; | 8 | ·····/˘/ |
| He'll soon fall in there! | 5 | ····· |
| Then shall I gloat on his commotion, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| For I have been there! | 5 | ····· |
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.