Columbus
A world, great prince, bright queen and royal lady,Discover'd now, has well repaid our toils;We to your bounty owe all that we are;Men of renown and to be fam'd in story.Islands of vast extent we have discover'dWith gold abounding: see a sample hereOf those most precious metals we admire;And Indian men, natives of other climes,Whom we have brought to do you princely homage,Owning they hold their diadems from you.
Words in this poem
- 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.]
- admire v. t.
- To regard with wonder or astonishment; to view with surprise; to marvel at. [F. admirer, fr. L. admirari; ad + mirari to wonder, for smirari, akin to Gr. smi, and E. smile.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Columbus is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Philip Freneau, Poet of the American Revolution. Volume 1 (of 3), Project Gutenberg ebook #38475; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Philip Freneau, Columbus, in Poems (1786–1815), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38475, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/freneau-poems/columbus.html, id L12722.
Form and metre
Columbus is 10 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A world, great prince, bright queen and royal lady, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Discover'd now, has well repaid our toils; | 10 | ˘/˘···˘//· |
| We to your bounty owe all that we are; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Men of renown and to be fam'd in story. | 11 | ··˘/·····/˘ |
| Islands of vast extent we have discover'd | 11 | /˘··˘/··˘/˘ |
| With gold abounding: see a sample here | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Of those most precious metals we admire; | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| And Indian men, natives of other climes, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| Whom we have brought to do you princely homage, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Owning they hold their diadems from you. | 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.