To the Earl of Carlisle, K. G III. 2
Ah! silly man, yet smarting soreWith ills which in the world he bore,Again on futile hope to rest,An unsubstantial prop at best,And not to know one swallow makes no summer!Ah! soon he'll find the brilliant gleam,Which flash'd across the hemisphere,Illumining the darkness there,Was but a single solitary beam,While all around remained in custom'd night.Still leaden ignorance reigns serene,In the false court's delusive height,And only one Carlisle is seenTo illume the heavy gloom with pure and steady light.
Words in this poem
- futile a.
- Talkative; loquacious; tattling. [L. futilis that easily pours out, that easily lets loose, vain, worthless, from the root of fundere to pour out: cf. F. futile. See Fuse, v. t.]
- illume v. t.
- To throw or spread light upon; to make light or bright; to illuminate; to illumine. [Cf. F. illuminer. See Illuminate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the Earl of Carlisle, K. G III. 2 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. 2, 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-2.html, id L10095.
Form and metre
To the Earl of Carlisle, K. G III. 2 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.9 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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 AABB-CDDCEFEFE soreA · boreA · restB · bestB · summer · gleamC · hemisphereD · thereD · beamC · nightE · sereneF · heightE · seenF · lightE
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ah! silly man, yet smarting sore | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| With ills which in the world he bore, | 8 | ········ |
| Again on futile hope to rest, | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| An unsubstantial prop at best, | 8 | ········ |
| And not to know one swallow makes no summer! | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Ah! soon he'll find the brilliant gleam, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Which flash'd across the hemisphere, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Illumining the darkness there, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Was but a single solitary beam, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘· |
| While all around remained in custom'd night. | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Still leaden ignorance reigns serene, | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘·˘/ |
| In the false court's delusive height, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| And only one Carlisle is seen | 8 | ·/˘·/··· |
| To illume the heavy gloom with pure and steady light. | 13 | ·˘/·/˘····/˘· |
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.