De Scaevola
Lictorem pro rege necans nunc mutius ultroSacrifico propriam concremat igne manum:Miratur Porsenna virum, paenamque relaxansMaxima cum obscessis faedera a victor init,Plus flammis patriae confert quam fortibus armis,Una domans bellum funere dextra sua.
About this text
De Scaevola 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, De Scaevola, in Lucasta (1649), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #703, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lovelace-lucasta/de-scaevola.html, id L13072.
Form and metre
De Scaevola is 6 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.3 syllables.
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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.
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 trochaic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Lictorem pro rege necans nunc mutius ultro | 12 | ············ |
| Sacrifico propriam concremat igne manum: | 12 | ············ |
| Miratur Porsenna virum, paenamque relaxans | 13 | ············· |
| Maxima cum obscessis faedera a victor init, | 14 | /˘········/˘·· |
| Plus flammis patriae confert quam fortibus armis, | 12 | ············ |
| Una domans bellum funere dextra sua. | 11 | /˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
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.