To Lyce, an Elderly Lady
Ye nymphs, whom starry rays invest,By flatt'ring poets given;Who shine, by lavish lovers drest,In all the pomp of heaven;
Engross not all the beams on high,Which gild a lover's lays;But, as your sister of the sky,Let Lyce share the praise.
Her silver locks display the moon,Her brows a cloudy show,Strip'd rainbows round her eyes are seen,And show'rs from either flow.
Her teeth the night with darkness dies,She's starr'd with pimples o'er;Her tongue, like nimble lightning, plies,And can with thunder roar.
But some Zelinda, while I sing,Denies my Lyce shines;And all the pens of Cupid's wingAttack my gentle lines.
Yet, spite of fair Zelinda's eye,And all her bards express,My Lyce makes as good a sky,And I but flatter less.
Words in this poem
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- engross v. t.
- To make gross, thick, or large; to thicken; to increase in bulk or quantity. [F., fr. pref. en- (L. in) + gros gross, grosse, n., an engrossed document: cf. OF. engrossir, engroissier, to make thick, large, or gross. See Gross.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Lyce, an Elderly Lady 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, To Lyce, an Elderly Lady, in Poems (1825), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10835, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-poems/to-lyce-an-elderly-lady.html, id L27148.
Form and metre
To Lyce, an Elderly Lady is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 97%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 investA · givenB · drestA · heavenB
- 2 ABAB highA · laysB · skyA · praiseB
- 3 ABAB moonA · showB · seenA · flowB
- 4 ABAB diesA · o'erB · pliesA · roarB
- 5 ABAB singA · shinesB · wingA · linesB
- 6 ABAB eyeA · expressB · skyA · lessB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ye nymphs, whom starry rays invest, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| By flatt'ring poets given; | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Who shine, by lavish lovers drest, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| In all the pomp of heaven; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Engross not all the beams on high, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Which gild a lover's lays; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But, as your sister of the sky, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Let Lyce share the praise. | 5 | ····· |
| Her silver locks display the moon, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Her brows a cloudy show, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Strip'd rainbows round her eyes are seen, | 8 | ·/······ |
| And show'rs from either flow. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Her teeth the night with darkness dies, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| She's starr'd with pimples o'er; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Her tongue, like nimble lightning, plies, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And can with thunder roar. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But some Zelinda, while I sing, | 8 | ········ |
| Denies my Lyce shines; | 5 | ˘/··· |
| And all the pens of Cupid's wing | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Attack my gentle lines. | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Yet, spite of fair Zelinda's eye, | 8 | ········ |
| And all her bards express, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| My Lyce makes as good a sky, | 7 | ······· |
| And I but flatter less. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.