Verses Written at the Request of a Gentleman, to Whom a Lady Had Given a Sprig of Myrtle
What hopes, what terrours, does thy gift create!Ambiguous emblem of uncertain fate!The myrtle (ensign of supreme command,Consign'd by Venus to Melissa's hand)Not less capricious than a reigning fair,Oft favours, oft rejects, a lover's pray'r.In myrtle shades oft sings the happy swain,In myrtle shades despairing ghosts complain.The myrtle crowns the happy lovers' heads,Th' unhappy lovers' graves the myrtle spreads.Oh! then, the meaning of thy gift impart,And ease the throbbings of an anxious heart.Soon must this bough, as you shall fix its doom,Adorn Philander's head, or grace his tomb.
Words in this poem
- despairing a.
- Feeling or expressing despair; hopeless.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Verses Written at the Request of a Gentleman, to Whom a Lady Had Given a Sprig of Myrtle 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, Verses Written at the Request of a Gentleman, to Whom a Lady Had Given a Sprig of Myrtle, in Poems (1825), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10835, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-poems/verses-written-at-the-request-of-a-gentleman-to-whom-a-lady.html, id L27146.
Form and metre
Verses Written at the Request of a Gentleman, to Whom a Lady Had Given a Sprig of Myrtle is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG createA · fateA · commandB · handB · fairC · pray'rC · swainD · complainD · headsE · spreadsE · impartF · heartF · doomG · tombG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What hopes, what terrours, does thy gift create! | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Ambiguous emblem of uncertain fate! | 10 | ˘/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| The myrtle (ensign of supreme command, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘/ |
| Consign'd by Venus to Melissa's hand) | 10 | ˘/·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Not less capricious than a reigning fair, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Oft favours, oft rejects, a lover's pray'r. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| In myrtle shades oft sings the happy swain, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| In myrtle shades despairing ghosts complain. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘·˘/ |
| The myrtle crowns the happy lovers' heads, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Th' unhappy lovers' graves the myrtle spreads. | 10 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Oh! then, the meaning of thy gift impart, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And ease the throbbings of an anxious heart. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Soon must this bough, as you shall fix its doom, | 10 | ·········· |
| Adorn Philander's head, or grace his tomb. | 10 | ˘/········ |
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.