The Roman Stage
A man of marble holds the throne,With looks composed and resolute:Till death, a prince whom princes own,Draws near to touch the marble mute.
The play is over: good my friends!Murmur the pale lips: your applause!With what a grace the actor ends:How loyal to dramatic laws!
A brooding beauty on his brow;Irony brooding over sin:The next imperial actor nowBids the satiric piece begin.
Words in this poem
- satiric a.
- Of or pertaining to satire; of the nature of satire; as, a satiric style. [L. satiricus: cf. F. satirique.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Roman Stage is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #66520; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lionel Johnson, The Roman Stage, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/the-roman-stage.html, id L12483.
Form and metre
The Roman Stage is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 ABAB throneA · resoluteB · ownA · muteB
- 2 ABAB friendsA · applauseB · endsA · lawsB
- 3 ABAB browA · sinB · nowA · beginB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A man of marble holds the throne, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With looks composed and resolute: | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Till death, a prince whom princes own, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Draws near to touch the marble mute. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The play is over: good my friends! | 8 | ········ |
| Murmur the pale lips: your applause! | 8 | /˘····˘/ |
| With what a grace the actor ends: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| How loyal to dramatic laws! | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| A brooding beauty on his brow; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Irony brooding over sin: | 8 | /˘˘/˘··· |
| The next imperial actor now | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Bids the satiric piece begin. | 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.