On a Daguerreotype Portrait of a Lady
Yes, there are her features! her brow, and her hair,And her eyes, with a look so seraphic,Her nose, and her mouth, with the smile that is there,Truly caught by the Art Photographic!
Yet why should she borrow such aid of the skies,When by many a bosom’s confession,Her own lovely face, and the light of her eyes,Are sufficient to make an impression?
Words in this poem
- seraphic a.
- Of or pertaining to a seraph; becoming, or suitable to, a seraph; angelic; sublime; pure; refined. [Cf. F. séraphique.]
- borrow v. t.
- To receive from another as a loan, with the implied or expressed intention of returning the identical article or its equivalent in kind; -- the opposite of lend. [OE. borwen, AS. borgian, fr. borg, borh, pledge; akin to D. borg, G. borg; prob. fr. root of AS. beorgan to protect. Borough.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On a Daguerreotype Portrait of a Lady 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 Daguerreotype Portrait of a Lady, in Poems (1827–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56712, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poems/on-a-daguerreotype-portrait-of-a-lady.html, id L06829.
Form and metre
On a Daguerreotype Portrait of a Lady is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is anapaestic common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in anapaestic common measure.
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 ABAB hairA · seraphicB · thereA · photographicB
- 2 ABAB skiesA · confessionB · eyesA · impressionB
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 anapaestic common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Yes, there are her features! her brow, and her hair, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| And her eyes, with a look so seraphic, | 10 | ·········· |
| Her nose, and her mouth, with the smile that is there, | 11 | ··········· |
| Truly caught by the Art Photographic! | 10 | /˘·····˘/˘ |
| Yet why should she borrow such aid of the skies, | 11 | ····/······ |
| When by many a bosom’s confession, | 9 | ··/·/˘˘/˘ |
| Her own lovely face, and the light of her eyes, | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| Are sufficient to make an impression? | 10 | ·˘/˘···˘/˘ |
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.