Urceus Exit

Henry Austin Dobson (1840)

anapaestic dimeter · 8 lines · from Poems

I intended an Ode,And it turn’d to a SonnetIt began _à la mode_,I intended an Ode;But Rose crossed the roadIn her latest new bonnet;I intended an Ode;And it turn’d to a Sonnet.

Words in this poem

sonnet n.
A short poem, -- usually amatory. [F., fr. It. sonetto, fr. suono a sound, a song, fr. L. sonus a sound. See Sound noise.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Urceus Exit 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: Henry Austin Dobson, Urceus Exit, in Poems, text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-henry-austin-dobson/urceus-exit.html, id L16265.

Form and metre

Urceus Exit is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is anapaestic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.

See other poems in anapaestic dimeter.

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. 1 ABAAA-AB odeA · sonnetB · modeA · odeA · roadA · bonnet · odeA · sonnetB
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 anapaestic dimeter. How this is done.

LineSyl.Stress
I intended an Ode,6·˘/˘··
And it turn’d to a Sonnet7·····/˘
It began _à la mode_,5·˘/··
I intended an Ode;6·˘/˘··
But Rose crossed the road5·····
In her latest new bonnet;7··/˘·/˘
I intended an Ode;6·˘/˘··
And it turn’d to a Sonnet.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.

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