On a Picture (407) in the British Institution, 1843
Sir, let me just your tasteful eye enveigleTo yonder Painting, of the Madman Eagle.Which, that by Poole? Excuse me, sir, I beg,I really have no wish to catch “The Plague.”
Words in this poem
- tasteful a.
- Having a high relish; savory.
- enveigle v. t.
- To entice. See Inveigle.
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On a Picture (407) in the British Institution, 1843 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 Picture (407) in the British Institution, 1843, in Poems (1827–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56712, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poems/on-a-picture-407-in-the-british-institution-1843.html, id L06813.
Form and metre
On a Picture (407) in the British Institution, 1843 is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines: heroic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter. 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.5 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 AA-- enveigleA · eagleA · beg · plague
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sir, let me just your tasteful eye enveigle | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| To yonder Painting, of the Madman Eagle. | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/·/˘ |
| Which, that by Poole? Excuse me, sir, I beg, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| I really have no wish to catch “The Plague.” | 10 | ·/˘······· |
Notes from the edition 1
Notes from The Comic Poems of Thomas Hood (Project Gutenberg #56712).
- Line 2 Solomon Eagle.
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.