Epitaph
Tread (reader) gently, gently oreThe happy dust beneath this floor:For in this narrow vault is setAn alablaster cabinet,Wherein both arts and arms were put,Like Homers Iliads in a nut,Till Death with slow and easie paceSnatcht the bright jewell from the case;And now, transform'd, he doth ariseA constellation in the skies,Teaching the blinded world the way,Through night, to startle into day:And shipwrackt shades, with steady hand,He steers unto th' Elizian land.Dudley Posthumus-Lovelace.
Words in this poem
- jewell n.
- An ornament of dress usually made of a precious metal, and having enamel or precious stones as a part of its design. [OE. juel, jowel, OF. jouel, juel, joiel, F. joyau, dim. of OF. joie joy, jewel, F. joie joy. See Joy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epitaph 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, Epitaph, in Lucasta (1649), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #703, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lovelace-lucasta/epitaph.html, id L13119.
Form and metre
Epitaph is 15 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 93% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 27% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABBBBCCDDEEFFC oreA · floorA · setB · cabinetB · putB · nutB · paceC · caseC · ariseD · skiesD · wayE · dayE · handF · landF · lovelaceC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tread (reader) gently, gently ore | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| The happy dust beneath this floor: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| For in this narrow vault is set | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| An alablaster cabinet, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Wherein both arts and arms were put, | 8 | ········ |
| Like Homers Iliads in a nut, | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘··· |
| Till Death with slow and easie pace | 8 | ········ |
| Snatcht the bright jewell from the case; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And now, transform'd, he doth arise | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| A constellation in the skies, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Teaching the blinded world the way, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Through night, to startle into day: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And shipwrackt shades, with steady hand, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| He steers unto th' Elizian land. | 8 | ········ |
| Dudley Posthumus-Lovelace. | 7 | /˘···/· |
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.