To the Earl of Carlisle, K. G III. 1
"Yet was the muse not always seenIn poverty's dejected mien,Not always did repining rue,And misery her steps pursue.Time was, when nobles thought their titles gracedBy the sweet honours of poetic bays,When Sidney sung his melting song,When Sheffield join'd the harmonious throng,And Lyttelton attuned to love his lays.Those days are gone--alas, for ever gone!No more our nobles love to graceTheir brows with anadems, by genius won,But arrogantly deem the muse as base;How differently thought the sires of this degenerate race!"
Words in this poem
- graced a.
- Endowed with grace; beautiful; full of graces; honorable.
- deem v. t.
- To decide; to judge; to sentence; to condemn. [OE. demen to judge, condemn, AS. d, fr. d doom; akin to OFries. d, OS. ad, D. doemen, OHG. tuommen, Icel. dæma, Sw. dömma, Dan. dömme, Goth. d. See Doom, n., an]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the Earl of Carlisle, K. G III. 1 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, To the Earl of Carlisle, K. G III. 1, in The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White (1803–1806), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7149, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kirke-white-poems/to-the-earl-of-carlisle-k-g-iii-1.html, id L10092.
Form and metre
To the Earl of Carlisle, K. G III. 1 is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.4 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABB-CDDC-E-EE seenA · mienA · rueB · pursueB · graced · baysC · songD · throngD · laysC · gone · graceE · won · baseE · raceE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| "Yet was the muse not always seen | 8 | ·····/·· |
| In poverty's dejected mien, | 8 | ·/˘˘˘/˘· |
| Not always did repining rue, | 8 | ·/······ |
| And misery her steps pursue. | 8 | ·/˘˘··˘/ |
| Time was, when nobles thought their titles graced | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| By the sweet honours of poetic bays, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| When Sidney sung his melting song, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| When Sheffield join'd the harmonious throng, | 10 | ·/˘··˘/˘˘· |
| And Lyttelton attuned to love his lays. | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Those days are gone--alas, for ever gone! | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| No more our nobles love to grace | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| Their brows with anadems, by genius won, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But arrogantly deem the muse as base; | 10 | ·/˘˘˘····· |
| How differently thought the sires of this degenerate race!" | 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.