Social Amenities
I am getting on well with this anecdote,When suddenly I recallThe many times I have told it of old,And all the worked-up phrases, and the dying fallOf voice, well timed in the crisis, the noteOf mock-heroic ingeniously struck--The whole thing sticks in my throat,And my face all tingles and pricks with shameFor myself and my hearers.These are the social pleasures, my God!But I finish the story triumphantly all the same.
Words in this poem
- crisis n.
- The point of time when it is to be decided whether any affair or course of action must go on, or be modified or terminate; the decisive moment; the turning point. [L. crisis, Gr. Certain.]
- ingeniously adv.
- In an ingenious manner; with ingenuity; skillfully; wittily; cleverly.
- triumphantly adv.
- In a triumphant manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Social Amenities is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #24364; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Aldous Huxley, Social Amenities, in The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24364, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/huxley-defeat-of-youth/social-amenities.html, id L22031.
Form and metre
Social Amenities is 11 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See 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 AB-BA-AC--C anecdoteA · recallB · old · fallB · noteA · struck · throatA · shameC · hearers · god · sameC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I am getting on well with this anecdote, | 11 | ··/˘····/˘· |
| When suddenly I recall | 7 | ·/˘˘·/· |
| The many times I have told it of old, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And all the worked-up phrases, and the dying fall | 12 | ·····/˘··/˘· |
| Of voice, well timed in the crisis, the note | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Of mock-heroic ingeniously struck-- | 10 | ··˘/˘˘/˘˘· |
| The whole thing sticks in my throat, | 7 | ······· |
| And my face all tingles and pricks with shame | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| For myself and my hearers. | 7 | ··/··/˘ |
| These are the social pleasures, my God! | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| But I finish the story triumphantly all the same. | 13 | ··/˘·/˘˘/˘··· |
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.