By One of the Livery
Says Blue-and-Buff, to Drab-and-Pink,“I’ve heard the hardest word I think,That ever posed me since my teens,I wonder what As-best-os means!”
Says Drab-and-Pink, to Blue-and-Buff,“The word is clear, and plain enough.It means a Nag wot goes the pace,And so as best os wins the race.”
Words in this poem
- posed a.
- Firm; determined; fixed.
- teens n.
- The years of one's age having the termination -teen, beginning with thirteen and ending with nineteen; as, a girl in her teens. [See Ten.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
By One of the Livery is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Comic Poems of Thomas Hood A New and Complete Edition, Project Gutenberg ebook #56712; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hood, By One of the Livery, in Poems (1827–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56712, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poems/by-one-of-the-livery.html, id L06835.
Form and metre
By One of the Livery is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables.
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 AABB pinkA · thinkA · teensB · meansB
- 2 AABB buffA · enoughA · paceB · raceB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Says Blue-and-Buff, to Drab-and-Pink, | 8 | ········ |
| “I’ve heard the hardest word I think, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That ever posed me since my teens, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| I wonder what As-best-os means!” | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Says Drab-and-Pink, to Blue-and-Buff, | 8 | ········ |
| “The word is clear, and plain enough. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| It means a Nag wot goes the pace, | 8 | ········ |
| And so as best os wins the race.” | 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.