From ‘The Vicar of Wakefield’
WHEN lovely woman stoops to folly,And finds too late that men betray,What charm can soothe her melancholy,What art can wash her guilt away?
The only art her guilt to cover,To hide her shame from every eye,To give repentance to her lover,And wring his bosom, is—to die.
Words in this poem
- soothe v. t.
- To assent to as true. Testament of Love. [Originally, to assent to as true; OE. so to verify, AS. ges to prove the truth of, to bear witness. See Sooth, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
From ‘The Vicar of Wakefield’ 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, From ‘The Vicar of Wakefield’, in Poems (1764–1774), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3545, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/goldsmith-poems/from-the-vicar-of-wakefield.html, id L00437.
Form and metre
From ‘The Vicar of Wakefield’ is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.6 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 ABAB follyA · betrayB · melancholyA · awayB
- 2 ABAB coverA · eyeB · loverA · dieB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| WHEN lovely woman stoops to folly, | 9 | ·/˘/˘··/˘ |
| And finds too late that men betray, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| What charm can soothe her melancholy, | 9 | ·····/˘·˘ |
| What art can wash her guilt away? | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The only art her guilt to cover, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| To hide her shame from every eye, | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| To give repentance to her lover, | 9 | ··˘/˘··/˘ |
| And wring his bosom, is—to die. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
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.