Lady-Probationer
SOME three, or five, or seven, and thirty years;A Roman nose; a dimpling double-chin;Dark eyes and shy that, ignorant of sin,Are yet acquainted, it would seem, with tears;A comely shape; a slim, high-coloured hand,Graced, rather oddly, with a signet ring;A bashful air, becoming everything;A well-bred silence always at command.Her plain print gown, prim cap, and bright steel chainLook out of place on her, and I remainAbsorbed in her, as in a pleasant mystery.Quick, skilful, quiet, soft in speech and touch . . .‘Do you like nursing?’ ‘Yes, Sir, very much.’Somehow, I rather think she has a history.
Words in this poem
- graced a.
- Endowed with grace; beautiful; full of graces; honorable.
- oddly adv.
- In an odd manner; unevently.
- signet n.
- A seal; especially, in England, the seal used by the sovereign in sealing private letters and grants that pass by bill under the sign manual; -- called also privy signet. [OF. signet a signet, F., a bookmark, dim. of signe. See Sign, n., and cf. Sennet.]
- bashful a.
- Abashed; daunted; dismayed. [See Bash.]
- somehow adv.
- In one way or another; in some way not yet known or designated; by some means; as, the thing must be done somehow; he lives somehow.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lady-Probationer is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1568; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. E. Henley, Lady-Probationer, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/lady-probationer.html, id L12330.
Form and metre
Lady-Probationer is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBACDDCEEFGGF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABBACDDCEEFGGF yearsA · chinB · sinB · tearsA · handC · ringD · everythingD · commandC · chainE · remainE · mysteryF · touchG · muchG · historyF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| SOME three, or five, or seven, and thirty years; | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| A Roman nose; a dimpling double-chin; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Dark eyes and shy that, ignorant of sin, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Are yet acquainted, it would seem, with tears; | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| A comely shape; a slim, high-coloured hand, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Graced, rather oddly, with a signet ring; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| A bashful air, becoming everything; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| A well-bred silence always at command. | 10 | ···/˘/··˘/ |
| Her plain print gown, prim cap, and bright steel chain | 10 | ·········· |
| Look out of place on her, and I remain | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Absorbed in her, as in a pleasant mystery. | 11 | ˘/·····/˘/˘ |
| Quick, skilful, quiet, soft in speech and touch . . . | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| ‘Do you like nursing?’ ‘Yes, Sir, very much.’ | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Somehow, I rather think she has a history. | 11 | /··/˘····/˘ |
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.