Epitaph on Thomas Parnell
THIS tomb, inscrib’d to gentle Parnell’s name,May speak our gratitude, but not his fame.What heart but feels his sweetly-moral lay,That leads to truth through pleasure’s flowery way!Celestial themes confess’d his tuneful aid;And Heaven, that lent him genius, was repaid.Needless to him the tribute we bestow—The transitory breath of fame below:More lasting rapture from his works shall rise,While Converts thank their poet in the skies.
Words in this poem
- tuneful a.
- Harmonious; melodious; musical; as, tuneful notes.
- needless a.
- Having no need.
- 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,]
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epitaph on Thomas Parnell is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith, Project Gutenberg ebook #3545; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Oliver Goldsmith, Epitaph on Thomas Parnell, in Poems (1764–1774), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3545, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/goldsmith-poems/epitaph-on-thomas-parnell.html, id L00447.
Form and metre
Epitaph on Thomas Parnell is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEE nameA · fameA · layB · wayB · aidC · repaidC · bestowD · belowD · riseE · skiesE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| THIS tomb, inscrib’d to gentle Parnell’s name, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| May speak our gratitude, but not his fame. | 10 | ··//˘····· |
| What heart but feels his sweetly-moral lay, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| That leads to truth through pleasure’s flowery way! | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Celestial themes confess’d his tuneful aid; | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| And Heaven, that lent him genius, was repaid. | 10 | ·/···/˘·˘/ |
| Needless to him the tribute we bestow— | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| The transitory breath of fame below: | 10 | ·/˘·˘····· |
| More lasting rapture from his works shall rise, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| While Converts thank their poet in the skies. | 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.