Imitation of the Style of ****
Hermit hoar, in solemn cellWearing out life's ev'ning grey,Strike thy bosom, sage, and tellWhat is bliss, and which the way.
Thus I spoke, and speaking sigh'd,Scarce repress'd the starting tear,When the hoary sage reply'd,Come, my lad, and drink some beer.
Words in this poem
- hoar v. t.
- To become moldy or musty. [AS. harian to grow gray.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- hoary a.
- White or whitish."The hoary willows."
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Imitation of the Style of **** is in the public domain. This text is taken from Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 (The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes, 1825), Project Gutenberg ebook #10835; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Samuel Johnson, Imitation of the Style of ****, in Poems (1825), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10835, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-poems/imitation-of-the-style-of.html, id L27160.
Form and metre
Imitation of the Style of **** is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 cellA · greyB · tellA · wayB
- 2 ABAB sigh'dA · tearB · reply'dA · beerB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Hermit hoar, in solemn cell | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Wearing out life's ev'ning grey, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Strike thy bosom, sage, and tell | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| What is bliss, and which the way. | 7 | ······· |
| Thus I spoke, and speaking sigh'd, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Scarce repress'd the starting tear, | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| When the hoary sage reply'd, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Come, my lad, and drink some beer. | 7 | ······· |
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.