To Marcus T. Cicero. in an English Pentastick
Tully to thee, Rome's eloquent sole heir,The best of all that are, shall be, and were,I the worst poet send my best thanks and pray'r:Ev'n by how much the worst of poets I,By so much you the best of patrones be.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Marcus T. Cicero. in an English Pentastick 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, To Marcus T. Cicero. in an English Pentastick, in Lucasta (1649), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #703, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lovelace-lucasta/to-marcus-t-cicero-in-an-english-pentastick.html, id L13083.
Form and metre
To Marcus T. Cicero. in an English Pentastick is 5 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 10.2 syllables.
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 heir · were · pray'r · iA · beA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Tully to thee, Rome's eloquent sole heir, | 10 | /˘···/˘˘·· |
| The best of all that are, shall be, and were, | 10 | ·········· |
| I the worst poet send my best thanks and pray'r: | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Ev'n by how much the worst of poets I, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| By so much you the best of patrones be. | 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.