Poems
Mortality, behold and fear!What a change of flesh is here!Think how many royal bonesSleep within this heap of stones:Here they lie had realms and lands,Who now want strength to stir their hands:Where from their pulpits seal’d with dustThey preach, ‘In greatness is no trust.’Here’s an acre sown indeedWith the richest, royall’st seedThat the earth did e’er suck inSince the first man died for sin:Here the bones of birth have cried--‘Though gods they were, as men they died.’Here are sands, ignoble things,Dropt from the ruin’d sides of kings;Here’s a world of pomp and state,Buried in dust, once dead by fate.
Words in this poem
- mortality n.
- The condition or quality of being mortal; subjection to death or to the necessity of dying. [L. mortalitas: cf. F. mortalité.]
- acre n.
- Any field of arable or pasture land. [OE. aker, AS. æcer; akin to OS. accar, OHG. achar, Ger. acker, Icel. akr, Sw. åker, Dan. ager, Goth. akrs, L. ager, Gr. ajra. *2, 206.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poems 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: Francis Beaumont, Poems, (1586–1616), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-francis-beaumont/on-the-tombs-in-westminster-abbey.html, id L16046.
Form and metre
On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.3 syllables. 28% 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHII fearA · hereA · bonesB · stonesB · landsC · handsC · dustD · trustD · indeedE · seedE · inF · sinF · criedG · diedG · thingsH · kingsH · stateI · fateI
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mortality, behold and fear! | 7 | ˘/˘˘/·· |
| What a change of flesh is here! | 7 | ······· |
| Think how many royal bones | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Sleep within this heap of stones: | 7 | ······· |
| Here they lie had realms and lands, | 7 | ······· |
| Who now want strength to stir their hands: | 8 | ········ |
| Where from their pulpits seal’d with dust | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| They preach, ‘In greatness is no trust.’ | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Here’s an acre sown indeed | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| With the richest, royall’st seed | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| That the earth did e’er suck in | 7 | ······· |
| Since the first man died for sin: | 7 | ······· |
| Here the bones of birth have cried-- | 7 | ······· |
| ‘Though gods they were, as men they died.’ | 8 | ········ |
| Here are sands, ignoble things, | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Dropt from the ruin’d sides of kings; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Here’s a world of pomp and state, | 7 | ······· |
| Buried in dust, once dead by fate. | 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.