Impromptu Translation of the Same
O'er crackling ice, o'er gulfs profound,With nimble glide the skaters play;O'er treach'rous pleasure's flow'ry groundThus lightly skim, and haste away.
About this text
Impromptu Translation of the Same 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, Impromptu Translation of the Same, in Poems (1825), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10835, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-poems/impromptu-translation-of-the-same.html, id L27167.
Form and metre
Impromptu Translation of the Same is 4 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABAB. 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 ABAB profoundA · playB · groundA · awayB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O'er crackling ice, o'er gulfs profound, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| With nimble glide the skaters play; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| O'er treach'rous pleasure's flow'ry ground | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thus lightly skim, and haste away. | 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.