Isabella
The merit of this gallant deed is mine:Had not my jewels furnish'd out the fleetStill had this world been latent in the main.--Since on this project every man look'd cold,A woman, as his patroness, shall shine;And through the world the story shall be told,A woman gave new continents to Spain.
Words in this poem
- patroness n.
- A female patron or helper. [Cf. F. patronnesse.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Isabella 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, Isabella, in Poems (1786–1815), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38475, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/freneau-poems/isabella.html, id L12721.
Form and metre
Isabella is 7 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
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 A-BCACB mineA · fleet · mainB · coldC · shineA · toldC · spainB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The merit of this gallant deed is mine: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Had not my jewels furnish'd out the fleet | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Still had this world been latent in the main.-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Since on this project every man look'd cold, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| A woman, as his patroness, shall shine; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| And through the world the story shall be told, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A woman gave new continents to Spain. | 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.