To Mary Housemaid, on Valentine's Day
Mary, you know I've no love nonsense,And though I pen on such a day,I don't mean flirting, on my conscience,Or writing in the courting way.
Though Beauty hasn't formed your feature,It saves you p'rhaps from being vain,And many a poor unhappy creatureMay wish that she was half as plain.
Your virtues would not rise an inch,Although your shape was two foot taller,And wisely you let others pinchGreat waists and feet to make them smaller.
You never try to spare your handsFrom getting red by household duty,But doing all that it commands,Their coarseness is a moral beauty.
Let Susan flourish her fair arms,And at your old legs sneer and scoff,But let her laugh, for you have charmsThat nobody knows nothing of.
Words in this poem
- conscience n.
- Knowledge of one's own thoughts or actions; consciousness. [F. conscience, fr. L. conscientia, fr. consciens, p.pr. of conscire to know, to be conscious; con- + scire to know. See Science.]
- nobody n.
- No person; no one; not anybody. [No, a. + body.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Mary Housemaid, on Valentine's Day is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood, Project Gutenberg ebook #15652; 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, To Mary Housemaid, on Valentine's Day, in The Song of the Shirt, and Other Poems (1826–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15652, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poetical-works/to-mary-housemaid-on-valentine-s-day.html, id L20210.
Form and metre
To Mary Housemaid, on Valentine's Day is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 -A-A nonsense · dayA · conscience · wayA
- 2 ABAB featureA · vainB · creatureA · plainB
- 3 ABAB inchA · tallerB · pinchA · smallerB
- 4 ABAB handsA · dutyB · commandsA · beautyB
- 5 A-A- armsA · scoff · charmsA · of
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mary, you know I've no love nonsense, | 9 | /˘·····/˘ |
| And though I pen on such a day, | 8 | ········ |
| I don't mean flirting, on my conscience, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Or writing in the courting way. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Though Beauty hasn't formed your feature, | 9 | ·/˘/˘··/˘ |
| It saves you p'rhaps from being vain, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And many a poor unhappy creature | 9 | ·/··˘/˘/˘ |
| May wish that she was half as plain. | 8 | ········ |
| Your virtues would not rise an inch, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Although your shape was two foot taller, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And wisely you let others pinch | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Great waists and feet to make them smaller. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| You never try to spare your hands | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| From getting red by household duty, | 9 | ·/˘··/·/˘ |
| But doing all that it commands, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Their coarseness is a moral beauty. | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Let Susan flourish her fair arms, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And at your old legs sneer and scoff, | 8 | ········ |
| But let her laugh, for you have charms | 8 | ········ |
| That nobody knows nothing of. | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
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.