The Weather. to P. Murphy, Esq., M.N.S.
Dear Murphy, to improve her charms,Your servant humbly begs;She thanks you for her leash of arms,But wants a brace of legs.
Moreover, as you promise folksOn certain days a drizzle;She thinks, in case she cannot rain,She should have means to mizzle.
Some lightning too may just fall due,When woods begin to moult;And if she cannot “fork it out,”She’ll wish to make a bolt!
Words in this poem
- murphy n.
- A potato. [Humorous] Thackeray.
- humbly adv.
- With humility; lowly.
- folks n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- drizzle v. i.
- To rain slightly in very small drops; to fall, as water from the clouds, slowly and in fine particles; as, it drizzles; drizzling drops or rain. [Prop. freq. of AS. dreósan to fall. See Dreary.]
- mizzle v. i.
- To rain in very fine drops. [See Misle, and cf. Mistle.]
- moult v. i.
- To shed or cast the hair, feathers, skin, horns, or the like, as an animal or a bird. [OE. mouten, L. mutare. See Mew to molt, and cf. Mute, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Weather. to P. Murphy, Esq., M.N.S. 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, The Weather. to P. Murphy, Esq., M.N.S., in Poems (1827–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56712, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poems/the-weather-to-p-murphy-esq-m-n-s.html, id L06888.
Form and metre
The Weather. to P. Murphy, Esq., M.N.S. is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in 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 charmsA · begsB · armsA · legsB
- 2 -A-A folks · drizzleA · rain · mizzleA
- 3 -A-A due · moultA · out · boltA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Dear Murphy, to improve her charms, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Your servant humbly begs; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| She thanks you for her leash of arms, | 8 | ········ |
| But wants a brace of legs. | 6 | ······ |
| Moreover, as you promise folks | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| On certain days a drizzle; | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| She thinks, in case she cannot rain, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| She should have means to mizzle. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Some lightning too may just fall due, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| When woods begin to moult; | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| And if she cannot “fork it out,” | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| She’ll wish to make a bolt! | 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.