Moral
The moral here is plain to see.If true the hackneyed witticismWhich stamps OriginalityAs 'undetected plagiarism,'What a vocation I have miss'dAs undetected plagiarist!
Words in this poem
- witticism n.
- A witty saying; a sentence or phrase which is affectedly witty; an attempt at wit; a conceit. [From Witty.]
- originality n.
- The quality or state of being original. [Cf. F. originalité.]
- plagiarism n.
- The act or practice of plagiarizing. [Cf. F. plagiarisme.]
- vocation n.
- A call; a summons; a citation; especially, a designation or appointment to a particular state, business, or profession. [L. vocatio a bidding, invitation, fr. vocare to call, fr. vox, vocis, voice: cf. F. vocation. See Vocal.]
- plagiarist n.
- One who plagiarizes; or purloins the words, writings, or ideas of another, and passes them off as his own; a literary thief; a plagiary.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Moral 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, Moral, in Verse and Worse (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36702, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graham-verse-and-worse/moral-10.html, id L23321.
Form and metre
Moral is 6 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 -A-ABB see · witticismA · originality · plagiarismA · miss'dB · plagiaristB
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 moral here is plain to see. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| If true the hackneyed witticism | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Which stamps Originality | 8 | ··˘·˘/˘˘ |
| As 'undetected plagiarism,' | 9 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘ |
| What a vocation I have miss'd | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| As undetected plagiarist! | 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.