Dactylics
Woman of weeping eye, ah! for thy wretched lot,Putting on smiles to lure the lewd passenger,Smiling while anguish gnaws at thy heavy heart;
Sad is thy chance, thou daughter of misery,Vice and disease are wearing thee fast away,While the unfeeling ones sport with thy sufferings.
Destined to pamper the vicious one's appetite;Spurned by the beings who lured thee from innocence;Sinking unnoticed in sorrow and indigence;
Thou hast no friends, for they with thy virtue fled;Thou art an outcast from house and from happiness;Wandering alone on the wide world's unfeeling stage!
Daughter of misery, sad is thy prospect here;Thou hast no friend to soothe down the bed of death;None after thee inquires with solicitude;
Famine and fell disease shortly will wear thee down,Yet thou hast still to brave often the winter's wind,Loathsome to those thou wouldst court with thine hollow eyes.
Soon thou wilt sink into death's silent slumbering,And not a tear shall fall on thy early grave.Nor shall a single stone tell where thy bones are laid.
Once wert thou happy--thou wert once innocent;But the seducer beguiled thee in artlessness,Then he abandoned thee unto thine infamy.
Now he perhaps is reclined on a bed of down:But if a wretch like him sleeps in security,God of the red right arm! where is thy thunder-bolt?
Words in this poem
- lewd a.
- Not clerical; laic; laical; hence, unlearned; simple. [OE.lewed, lewd, lay, ignorant, vile, AS. l laical, belonging to the laity.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- outcast a.
- Cast out; degraded. [Cf. Sw. utkasta to cast out.]
- soothe v. t.
- To assent to as true. Testament of Love. [Originally, to assent to as true; OE. so to verify, AS. ges to prove the truth of, to bear witness. See Sooth, a.]
- famine n.
- General scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions; destitution. [F. famine, fr. L. fames hunger; cf. Gr. hani loss, lack, ha to leave.]
- shortly adv.
- In a short or brief time or manner; soon; quickly. [AS. sceortlice.]
- 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,]
- seducer n.
- One who, or that which, seduces; specifically, one who prevails over the chastity of a woman by enticements and persuasions.
- artlessness n.
- The quality of being artless, or void of art or guile; simplicity; sincerity.
- reclined a.
- Falling or turned downward; reclinate.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dactylics is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Henry Kirk White : With a Memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas, Project Gutenberg ebook #7149; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Kirke White, Dactylics, in The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White (1803–1806), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7149, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kirke-white-poems/dactylics.html, id L10086.
Form and metre
Dactylics is 27 lines in 9 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is dactylic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 77% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.4 syllables. 11 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in dactylic 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.
- 3 -AA appetite · innocenceA · indigenceA
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 dactylic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Woman of weeping eye, ah! for thy wretched lot, | 12 | /˘·/˘····/˘· |
| Putting on smiles to lure the lewd passenger, | 11 | /˘······/˘˘ |
| Smiling while anguish gnaws at thy heavy heart; | 11 | /˘·/˘···/˘· |
| Sad is thy chance, thou daughter of misery, | 11 | ·····/˘·/˘˘ |
| Vice and disease are wearing thee fast away, | 11 | ··˘/·/˘··˘/ |
| While the unfeeling ones sport with thy sufferings. | 12 | ··˘/˘····/˘˘ |
| Destined to pamper the vicious one's appetite; | 12 | /˘·/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| Spurned by the beings who lured thee from innocence; | 12 | ···/˘····/˘˘ |
| Sinking unnoticed in sorrow and indigence; | 12 | /˘˘/˘·/˘·/˘˘ |
| Thou hast no friends, for they with thy virtue fled; | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Thou art an outcast from house and from happiness; | 12 | ···/·····/˘˘ |
| Wandering alone on the wide world's unfeeling stage! | 12 | /˘˘/····˘/˘· |
| Daughter of misery, sad is thy prospect here; | 12 | /˘·/˘˘···/˘· |
| Thou hast no friend to soothe down the bed of death; | 11 | ··········· |
| None after thee inquires with solicitude; | 12 | ····˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Famine and fell disease shortly will wear thee down, | 12 | /˘··˘//˘···· |
| Yet thou hast still to brave often the winter's wind, | 12 | ······/˘·/˘· |
| Loathsome to those thou wouldst court with thine hollow eyes. | 12 | /˘·······/˘· |
| Soon thou wilt sink into death's silent slumbering, | 12 | ·······/˘/˘˘ |
| And not a tear shall fall on thy early grave. | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Nor shall a single stone tell where thy bones are laid. | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| Once wert thou happy--thou wert once innocent; | 11 | ···/˘···/˘˘ |
| But the seducer beguiled thee in artlessness, | 12 | ··˘/˘˘/··/˘˘ |
| Then he abandoned thee unto thine infamy. | 12 | ··˘/˘····/˘˘ |
| Now he perhaps is reclined on a bed of down: | 12 | ··˘/·˘/····· |
| But if a wretch like him sleeps in security, | 12 | ········˘/˘˘ |
| God of the red right arm! where is thy thunder-bolt? | 12 | ·········/˘· |
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.