Ireland
The Irishman is never quiteContented with his little lot;He's ever thirsting for a fight,A grievance he has always got;And all his energy is bentOn trying not to pay his rent.
He lives upon a frugal fare(The few potatoes that he digs),And hospitably loves to shareHis bedroom with his wife and pigs;But cannot settle even here,And gets evicted once a year.
In order to amuse himself,At any time when things are slack,He takes his gun down from the shelfAnd shoots a landlord in the back;If he is lucky in the chase,He may contrive to bag a brace.
Words in this poem
- irishman n.
- A man born in Ireland or of the Irish race; an Hibernian.
- grievance n.
- A cause of uneasiness and complaint; a wrong done and suffered; that which gives ground for remonstrance or resistance, as arising from injustice, tyranny, etc.; injury. [OF. grcvance. See Grieve, v. t.]
- hospitably adv.
- In a hospitable manner.
- bedroom n.
- A room or apartment intended or used for a bed; a lodging room.
- amuse v. t.
- To occupy or engage the attention of; to lose in deep thought; to absorb; also, to distract; to bewilder. [F. amuser to make stay, to detain, to amuse, ad) + OF. muser. See Muse, v.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ireland is in the public domain. This text is taken from Verse and Worse, Project Gutenberg ebook #36702; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Harry Graham, Ireland, in Verse and Worse (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36702, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graham-verse-and-worse/ireland.html, id L23296.
Form and metre
Ireland is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABABCC quiteA · lotB · fightA · gotB · bentC · rentC
- 2 ABABCC fareA · digsB · shareA · pigsB · hereC · yearC
- 3 ABABCC himselfA · slackB · shelfA · backB · chaseC · braceC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The Irishman is never quite | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Contented with his little lot; | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| He's ever thirsting for a fight, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| A grievance he has always got; | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| And all his energy is bent | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| On trying not to pay his rent. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| He lives upon a frugal fare | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| (The few potatoes that he digs), | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| And hospitably loves to share | 8 | ·/˘˘˘··· |
| His bedroom with his wife and pigs; | 8 | ·/······ |
| But cannot settle even here, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| And gets evicted once a year. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| In order to amuse himself, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘/ |
| At any time when things are slack, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| He takes his gun down from the shelf | 8 | ········ |
| And shoots a landlord in the back; | 8 | ···/···· |
| If he is lucky in the chase, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| He may contrive to bag a brace. | 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.