Item
Ictu non potuit primo Cato solvere vitam;Defecit tanto vulnere victa manus:Altius inseruit digitos, qua spiritus ingensExiret, magnum dextera fecit iter.Opposuit fortuna moram, involvitque, CatonisScires ut ferro plus valuisse manum.
Words in this poem
- manus n.
- The distal segment of the fore limb, including the carpus and fore foot or hand. [L., the hand.]
- magnum n.
- A large wine bottle. [Neut. sing. of L. magnus great.]
- iter n.
- A passage; esp., the passage between the third and fourth ventricles in the brain; the aqueduct of Sylvius. [L. See Eyre.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Item 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, Item, in Lucasta (1649), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #703, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lovelace-lucasta/item.html, id L13074.
Form and metre
Item is 6 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic heptameter, 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 12.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in trochaic heptameter.
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ictu non potuit primo Cato solvere vitam; | 13 | ·····/·/˘···· |
| Defecit tanto vulnere victa manus: | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Altius inseruit digitos, qua spiritus ingens | 14 | ·············· |
| Exiret, magnum dextera fecit iter. | 12 | ···/˘·····/˘ |
| Opposuit fortuna moram, involvitque, Catonis | 14 | ···˘/˘········ |
| Scires ut ferro plus valuisse manum. | 9 | ··/˘····· |
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.