Felicity
To marry her and take her home!The poet, painting pureness, tellsOf lilies; figures power by Rome;And each thing shows by something else.But through the songs of poets look,And who so lucky to have foundIn universal nature’s bookA likeness for a life so crown’d!Here they speak best who best expressTheir inability to speak,And none are strong, but who confessWith happy skill that they are weak.
Words in this poem
- pureness n.
- The state of being pure (in any sense of the adjective).
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Felicity is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Angel in the House, Project Gutenberg ebook #4099; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Coventry Patmore, Felicity, in The Angel in the House (1854–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4099, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/patmore-angel/felicity.html, id L12310.
Form and metre
Felicity is 12 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 42% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 A-A-BCBCDEDE homeA · tells · romeA · else · lookB · foundC · bookB · crown'dC · expressD · speakE · confessD · weakE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To marry her and take her home! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The poet, painting pureness, tells | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Of lilies; figures power by Rome; | 8 | ·/˘/˘/·· |
| And each thing shows by something else. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But through the songs of poets look, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And who so lucky to have found | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In universal nature’s book | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| A likeness for a life so crown’d! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Here they speak best who best express | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Their inability to speak, | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| And none are strong, but who confess | 8 | ······˘/ |
| With happy skill that they are weak. | 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.