Another Version
I lie on this bedAs I lie in the tomb.Firmly, O Jesus,I make my confession to Thee.Through deeds of my flesh,Through thoughts of my heart,Through sight of my eyes,Through hearing of my ears,Through speech of my lips,Through movements of my feet,Through everything spokenWhich was not true;Through each thing promisedAnd not fulfilled;Each thing that I did against Thy law,Or against Thy sacred will,I ask forgiveness from Thee,O King of Glory.
About this text
Another Version is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poem-Book of the Gael Translations from Irish Gaelic Poetry into English Prose and Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #46917; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eleanor Hull, Another Version, in The Poem-Book of the Gael (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #46917, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hull-gael/another-version-2.html, id L11751.
Form and metre
Another Version is 18 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.8 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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- bed · tomb · jesus · theeA · flesh · heart · eyes · ears · lips · feet · spoken · true · promised · fulfilled · law · will · theeA · glory
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I lie on this bed | 5 | ····· |
| As I lie in the tomb. | 6 | ······ |
| Firmly, O Jesus, | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| I make my confession to Thee. | 8 | ···˘/˘·· |
| Through deeds of my flesh, | 5 | ····· |
| Through thoughts of my heart, | 5 | ····· |
| Through sight of my eyes, | 5 | ····· |
| Through hearing of my ears, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Through speech of my lips, | 5 | ····· |
| Through movements of my feet, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Through everything spoken | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Which was not true; | 4 | ···· |
| Through each thing promised | 5 | ···/˘ |
| And not fulfilled; | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Each thing that I did against Thy law, | 9 | ········· |
| Or against Thy sacred will, | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| I ask forgiveness from Thee, | 7 | ··˘/˘·· |
| O King of Glory. | 5 | ···/˘ |
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.