To Mrs. Thrale, on Her Completing Her Thirty-Fifth Year
Oft in danger, yet alive,We are come to thirty-five;Long may better years arrive,Better years than thirty-five!Could philosophers contriveLife to stop at thirty-five,Time his hours should never driveO'er the bounds of thirty-five.High to soar, and deep to dive,Nature gives at thirty-five.Ladies, stock and tend your hive,Trifle not at thirty-five;For, howe'er we boast and strive.Life declines from thirty-five.He that ever hopes to thriveMust begin by thirty-five;And all, who wisely wish to wive,Must look on Thrale at thirty-five.
Words in this poem
- wive v. i.
- To marry, as a man; to take a wife. [AS. wifian, gewifian. See Wite.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Mrs. Thrale, on Her Completing Her Thirty-Fifth Year 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 Mrs. Thrale, on Her Completing Her Thirty-Fifth Year, in Poems (1825), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10835, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-poems/to-mrs-thrale-on-her-completing-her-thirty-fifth-year.html, id L27168.
Form and metre
To Mrs. Thrale, on Her Completing Her Thirty-Fifth Year is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 89% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, 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 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-A aliveA · fiveA · arriveA · fiveA · contriveA · fiveA · driveA · fiveA · diveA · fiveA · hiveA · fiveA · striveA · fiveA · thriveA · fiveA · wive · fiveA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oft in danger, yet alive, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| We are come to thirty-five; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Long may better years arrive, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Better years than thirty-five! | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Could philosophers contrive | 7 | ·˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Life to stop at thirty-five, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Time his hours should never drive | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| O'er the bounds of thirty-five. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| High to soar, and deep to dive, | 7 | ······· |
| Nature gives at thirty-five. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Ladies, stock and tend your hive, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Trifle not at thirty-five; | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| For, howe'er we boast and strive. | 7 | ······· |
| Life declines from thirty-five. | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| He that ever hopes to thrive | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Must begin by thirty-five; | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| And all, who wisely wish to wive, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Must look on Thrale at thirty-five. | 9 | ······/˘· |
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.