Another
One stabbe could not fierce Cato's life unty;Onely his hand of all that wound did dy.Deeper his fingers tear to make a wayOpen, through which his mighty soul might stray.Fortune made this delay to let us know,That Cato's hand more then his sword could do.
Words in this poem
- stabbe v. t.
- To pierce with a pointed weapon; to wound or kill by the thrust of a pointed instrument; as, to stab a man with a dagger; also, to thrust; as, to stab a dagger into a person. [Cf. OD. staven to fix, fasten, fr. stave, staff, a staff, rod; akin to G. stab a staff, stick, E. staff; also Gael. stob to stab, as n., a stake, a stub. Cf. St]
- unty v. t.
- To untie. Young.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Another is in the public domain. This text is taken from Lucasta, Project Gutenberg ebook #703; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Richard Lovelace, Another, in Lucasta (1649), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #703, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lovelace-lucasta/another-3.html, id L13075.
Form and metre
Another is 6 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 75% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
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 --AA-- unty · dy · wayA · strayA · know · do
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 |
|---|---|---|
| One stabbe could not fierce Cato's life unty; | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Onely his hand of all that wound did dy. | 10 | /˘········ |
| Deeper his fingers tear to make a way | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Open, through which his mighty soul might stray. | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Fortune made this delay to let us know, | 10 | /˘··˘/···· |
| That Cato's hand more then his sword could do. | 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.