The Stand
For what is life, if measured by the spaceNot by the act?Or maskèd man, if valued by his face,Above his fact?Here’s one outlived his peers,And told forth fourscore years;He vexèd time, and busied the whole state;Troubled both foes and friends;But ever to no ends:What did this stirrer but die late?How well at twenty had he fallen or stood!For three of his fourscore he did no good.
Words in this poem
- fourscore a.
- Four times twenty; eighty. [Four + core, n.]
- stirrer n.
- One who, or that which, stirs something; also, one who moves about, especially after sleep; as, an early stirrer. Shak. Stirrer up, an instigator or inciter. Atterbury.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Stand is in the public domain. This text is taken from Discoveries Made Upon Men and Matter and Some Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #5134; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ben Jonson, The Stand, in Discoveries Made Upon Men and Matter and Some Poems (1616), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5134, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/jonson-poems/the-stand.html, id L23811.
Form and metre
The Stand is 12 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCCDEEDFF. 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 ABABCCDEEDFF spaceA · actB · faceA · factB · peersC · yearsC · stateD · friendsE · endsE · lateD · stoodF · goodF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| For what is life, if measured by the space | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Not by the act? | 4 | ···· |
| Or maskèd man, if valued by his face, | 10 | ····/˘˘··· |
| Above his fact? | 4 | ···· |
| Here’s one outlived his peers, | 6 | ···/·· |
| And told forth fourscore years; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| He vexèd time, and busied the whole state; | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Troubled both foes and friends; | 6 | /˘···· |
| But ever to no ends: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| What did this stirrer but die late? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| How well at twenty had he fallen or stood! | 11 | ···/˘··/˘·· |
| For three of his fourscore he did no good. | 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.