Prologue of Laberius
WHAT! no way left to shun th’ inglorious stage,And save from infamy my sinking age!Scarce half alive, oppress’d with many a year,What in the name of dotage drives me here?A time there was, when glory was my guide,Nor force nor fraud could turn my steps aside;Unaw’d by pow’r, and unappall’d by fear,With honest thrift I held my honour dear;But this vile hour disperses all my store,And all my hoard of honour is no more.For ah! too partial to my life’s decline,Caesar persuades, submission must be mine;Him I obey, whom heaven itself obeys,Hopeless of pleasing, yet inclin’d to please.Here then at once, I welcome every shame,And cancel at threescore a life of fame;No more my titles shall my children tell,The old buffoon will fit my name as well;This day beyond its term my fate extends,For life is ended when our honour ends.
Words in this poem
- inglorious a.
- Not glorious; not bringing honor or glory; not accompanied with fame, honor, or celebrity; obscure; humble; as, an inglorious life of ease. [L. inglorious; pref. in- not + gloria glory, fame: cf. F. inglorieux. See Glory.]
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- dotage n.
- Feebleness or imbecility of understanding or mind, particularly in old age; the childishness of old age; senility; as, a venerable man, now in his dotage. [From Dote, v. i.]
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- 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
Prologue of Laberius 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, Prologue of Laberius, in Poems (1764–1774), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3545, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/goldsmith-poems/prologue-of-laberius.html, id L00421.
Form and metre
Prologue of Laberius is 20 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 90% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 92% 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 AABBCCBBDDEE--FFGGHH stageA · ageA · yearB · hereB · guideC · asideC · fearB · dearB · storeD · moreD · declineE · mineE · obeys · please · shameF · fameF · tellG · wellG · extendsH · endsH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| WHAT! no way left to shun th’ inglorious stage, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| And save from infamy my sinking age! | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Scarce half alive, oppress’d with many a year, | 10 | ··˘/˘/·/·· |
| What in the name of dotage drives me here? | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A time there was, when glory was my guide, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Nor force nor fraud could turn my steps aside; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Unaw’d by pow’r, and unappall’d by fear, | 10 | ·········· |
| With honest thrift I held my honour dear; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| But this vile hour disperses all my store, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And all my hoard of honour is no more. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| For ah! too partial to my life’s decline, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Caesar persuades, submission must be mine; | 10 | /˘˘/˘/˘··· |
| Him I obey, whom heaven itself obeys, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘/ |
| Hopeless of pleasing, yet inclin’d to please. | 10 | /˘·/˘·˘/·· |
| Here then at once, I welcome every shame, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| And cancel at threescore a life of fame; | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| No more my titles shall my children tell, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The old buffoon will fit my name as well; | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| This day beyond its term my fate extends, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| For life is ended when our honour ends. | 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.