Traitors’ Aims
Three traitors, Oxford--Francis--Bean,Have missed their wicked aim;And may all shots against the Queen,In future do the same:For why, I mean no turn of wit,But seriously insist,That if Her Majesty were hit,No one would be so miss’d.
Words in this poem
- shots n.
- The refuse of cattle taken from a drove.
- insist v. i.
- To stand or rest; to find support; -- with in, on, or upon. [F. insister, L. insistere to set foot upon, follow, persist; pref. in- in + sistere to stand, cause to stand. See Stand.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Traitors’ Aims 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, Traitors’ Aims, in Poems (1827–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56712, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poems/traitors-aims.html, id L06824.
Form and metre
Traitors’ Aims is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 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 ABABCDCD beanA · aimB · queenA · sameB · witC · insistD · hitC · miss'dD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Three traitors, Oxford--Francis--Bean, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Have missed their wicked aim; | 8 | ··˘·/˘˘· |
| And may all shots against the Queen, | 8 | ········ |
| In future do the same: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| For why, I mean no turn of wit, | 8 | ········ |
| But seriously insist, | 7 | ·/˘˘˘˘/ |
| That if Her Majesty were hit, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| No one would be so miss’d. | 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.