The Adventures of Simon Swaugum: 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
The Adventures of Simon Swaugum: 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, The Adventures of Simon Swaugum: Epilogue, in Columbus to Ferdinand, and other poems (1786–1815), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38475, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/freneau-poems/the-adventures-of-simon-swaugum-epilogue.html, id L12699.
Form and metre
The Adventures of Simon Swaugum: 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%).
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.