On a Certain Equestrian Statue at the Royal Exchange
Whoever has looked upon Wellington’s breast,Knows well that he’s not so full in the chest;But the sculptor, to humour the Londoners partial,Has turn’d the lean Duke to a plump City Marshal.
Words in this poem
- whoever pron.
- Whatever person; any person who; be or she who; any one who; as, he shall be punished, whoever he may be.
- sculptor n.
- One who sculptures; one whose occupation is to carve statues, or works of sculpture. [L. sculptor, fr. sculpere, sculptum, to carve; cf. scalpere to cut, carve, scratch, and Gr. sculpteur.]
- humour n.
- Moisture, especially, the moisture or fluid of animal bodies, as the chyle, lymph, etc.; as, the humors of the eye, etc. [OE. humour, OF. humor, umor, F. humeur, L. humor, umor, moisture, fluid, fr. humere, umere, to be moist. See Humid.]
- duke n.
- A leader; a chief; a prince. [F. duc, fr. L. dux, ducis, leader, commander, fr. ducere to lead; akin to AS. teón to draw; cf. AS. heretoga (here army) an army leader, general, G. herzog duke]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On a Certain Equestrian Statue at the Royal Exchange 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, On a Certain Equestrian Statue at the Royal Exchange, in Poems (1827–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56712, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poems/on-a-certain-equestrian-statue-at-the-royal-exchange.html, id L06828.
Form and metre
On a Certain Equestrian Statue at the Royal Exchange is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter. 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABB breastA · chestA · partialB · marshalB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Whoever has looked upon Wellington’s breast, | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| Knows well that he’s not so full in the chest; | 10 | ·········· |
| But the sculptor, to humour the Londoners partial, | 12 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Has turn’d the lean Duke to a plump City Marshal. | 12 | ········/˘/˘ |
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.