1. Drinking
The thirsty earth soaks up the rain,And drinks and gapes for drink again;The plants suck in the earth, and areWith constant drinking fresh and fair;The sea itself (which one would thinkShould have but little need of drink)Drinks twice ten thousand rivers up,So fill’d that they o’erflow the cup.The busy Sun (and one would guessBy ’s drunken fiery face no less)Drinks up the sea, and when he’s done,The Moon and Stars drink up the Sun:They drink and dance by their own light,They drink and revel all the night:Nothing in Nature’s sober found,But an eternal health goes round.Fill up the bowl, then, fill it high.Fill all the glasses there--for whyShould every creature drink but I?Why, man of morals, tell me why?
About this text
1. Drinking is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Abraham Cowley, 1. Drinking, in Poems (1618–1667), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-abraham-cowley/1-drinking.html, id L16097.
Form and metre
1. Drinking is 20 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 90% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 20% 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 AA--BBCCDDEEFFGGHHHH rainA · againA · are · fair · thinkB · drinkB · upC · cupC · guessD · lessD · doneE · sunE · lightF · nightF · foundG · roundG · highH · whyH · iH · whyH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The thirsty earth soaks up the rain, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And drinks and gapes for drink again; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The plants suck in the earth, and are | 8 | ········ |
| With constant drinking fresh and fair; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The sea itself (which one would think | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Should have but little need of drink) | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Drinks twice ten thousand rivers up, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| So fill’d that they o’erflow the cup. | 8 | ········ |
| The busy Sun (and one would guess | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| By ’s drunken fiery face no less) | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| Drinks up the sea, and when he’s done, | 8 | ········ |
| The Moon and Stars drink up the Sun: | 8 | ········ |
| They drink and dance by their own light, | 8 | ········ |
| They drink and revel all the night: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Nothing in Nature’s sober found, | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| But an eternal health goes round. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Fill up the bowl, then, fill it high. | 8 | ········ |
| Fill all the glasses there--for why | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Should every creature drink but I? | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Why, man of morals, tell me why? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
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.