To the Portrait of "A Lady" in the Athenaeum Gallery
I wonder what's your name,I wonder how you came to beIn such a stylish frame;Perhaps you were a favorite child,Perhaps an only one;Perhaps your friends were not awareYou had your portrait done.
Yet you must be a harmless soul;I cannot think that SinWould care to throw his loaded dice,With such a stake to win;I cannot think you would provokeThe poet's wicked pen,Or make young women bite their lips,Or ruin fine young men.
Pray, did you ever hear, my love,Of boys that go about,Who, for a very trifling sum,Will snip one's picture out?I'm not averse to red and white,But all things have their place,I think a profile cut in blackWould suit your style of face!
I love sweet features; I will ownThat I should like myselfTo see my portrait on a wall,Or bust upon a shelf;But nature sometimes makes one upOf such sad odds and ends,It really might be quite as wellHushed up among one's friends!
Words in this poem
- stylish a.
- Having style or artistic quality; given to, or fond of, the display of style; highly fashionable; modish; as, a stylish dress, house, manner.
- snip v. t.
- To cut off the nip or neb of, or to cut off at once with shears or scissors; to clip off suddenly; to nip; hence, to break off; to snatch away. [D. snippen; akin to G. schnippen.]
- averse a.
- Turned away or backward. [L. aversus, p. p. of avertere. See Avert.]
- odds n.
- Difference in favor of one and against another; excess of one of two things or numbers over the other; inequality; advantage; superiority; hence, excess of chances; probability. [See Odd, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the Portrait of "A Lady" in the Athenaeum Gallery is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes — Volume 01: Earlier Poems (1830-1836), Project Gutenberg ebook #7388; 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 Wendell Holmes, To the Portrait of "A Lady" in the Athenaeum Gallery, in Poetical Works, Volume I (1830–1848), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7388, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/holmes-poems/to-the-portrait-of-a-lady-in-the-athenaeum-gallery.html, id L00467.
Form and metre
To the Portrait of "A Lady" in the Athenaeum Gallery is 31 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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-A-B-B nameA · be · frameA · child · oneB · aware · doneB
- 2 -A-A-B-B soul · sinA · dice · winA · provoke · penB · lips · menB
- 3 -A-A-B-B love · aboutA · sum · outA · white · placeB · black · faceB
- 4 -A-A-B-B own · myselfA · wall · shelfA · up · endsB · well · friendsB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I wonder what's your name, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I wonder how you came to be | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In such a stylish frame; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Perhaps you were a favorite child, | 9 | ˘/···/˘˘· |
| Perhaps an only one; | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Perhaps your friends were not aware | 8 | ˘/····˘/ |
| You had your portrait done. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Yet you must be a harmless soul; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I cannot think that Sin | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Would care to throw his loaded dice, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With such a stake to win; | 6 | ······ |
| I cannot think you would provoke | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| The poet's wicked pen, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Or make young women bite their lips, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Or ruin fine young men. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Pray, did you ever hear, my love, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of boys that go about, | 6 | ······ |
| Who, for a very trifling sum, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Will snip one's picture out? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I'm not averse to red and white, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| But all things have their place, | 6 | ······ |
| I think a profile cut in black | 8 | ···/···· |
| Would suit your style of face! | 6 | ······ |
| I love sweet features; I will own | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That I should like myself | 6 | ·····/ |
| To see my portrait on a wall, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Or bust upon a shelf; | 6 | ······ |
| But nature sometimes makes one up | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| Of such sad odds and ends, | 6 | ······ |
| It really might be quite as well | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Hushed up among one's friends! | 6 | ······ |
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.