Epilogue
Well!--strange it is, that men will still applyThings to themselves, that authors never meant:Each country merchant asks me, "Is it IOn whom your rhyming ridicule is spent?"Friends, hold your tongues--such myriads of your raceAdorn Columbia's fertile, favour'd climes,A man might rove seven years from place to placeEre he would know the subject of my rhymes.--Perhaps in Jersey is this creature known,Perhaps New-England claims him for her own:And if from Fancy's world this wight I drew,What is the imagin'd character to you?"
Words in this poem
- 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]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epilogue 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, Epilogue, in Poems (1786–1815), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38475, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/freneau-poems/epilogue.html, id L12699.
Form and metre
Epilogue is 12 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEEFF. 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 10.0 syllables. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABABCDCDEEFF applyA · meantB · iA · spentB · raceC · climesD · placeC · rhymesD · knownE · ownE · drewF · youF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Well!--strange it is, that men will still apply | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Things to themselves, that authors never meant: | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Each country merchant asks me, "Is it I | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| On whom your rhyming ridicule is spent?" | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Friends, hold your tongues--such myriads of your race | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Adorn Columbia's fertile, favour'd climes, | 10 | ˘/˘/˘/˘··· |
| A man might rove seven years from place to place | 10 | ····/····· |
| Ere he would know the subject of my rhymes.-- | 10 | ·····˘/··· |
| Perhaps in Jersey is this creature known, | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| Perhaps New-England claims him for her own: | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| And if from Fancy's world this wight I drew, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| What is the imagin'd character to 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.