Ballad XI: The Character of a Happy Life
How happy is he born or taught,That serveth not anothers will;Whose armour is his honest thought,And simple truth his highest skill:
Whose passions not his masters are;Whose soul is still prepar'd for death;Not ty'd unto the world with careOf princes ear, or vulgar breath:
Who hath his life from rumours freed;Whose conscience is his strong retreat:Whose state can neither flatterers feed,Nor ruine make oppressors great:
Who envies none, whom chance doth raise,Or vice: Who never understoodHow deepest wounds are given with praise;Nor rules of state, but rules of good:
Who God doth late and early prayMore of his grace than gifts to lend;And entertaines the harmless dayWith a well-chosen book or friend.
This man is freed from servile bandsOf hope to rise, or feare to fall;Lord of himselfe, though not of lands;And having nothing, yet hath all.
Words in this poem
- armour n.
- Defensive arms for the body; any clothing or covering worn to protect one's person in battle. [OE. armure, fr. F. armure, OF. armeure, fr. L. armatura. See Armature.]
- conscience n.
- Knowledge of one's own thoughts or actions; consciousness. [F. conscience, fr. L. conscientia, fr. consciens, p.pr. of conscire to know, to be conscious; con- + scire to know. See Science.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ballad XI: The Character of a Happy Life is in the public domain. This text is taken from Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume 1 (of 3) Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets Together With Some Few of Later Date, Project Gutenberg ebook #45939; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Percy, Ballad XI: The Character of a Happy Life, in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume I (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #45939, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/percy-reliques/ballad-xi-the-character-of-a-happy-life.html, id L08557.
Form and metre
Ballad XI: The Character of a Happy Life is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 21% 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 ABAB taughtA · willB · thoughtA · skillB
- 2 -A-A are · deathA · care · breathA
- 3 A-A- freedA · retreat · feedA · great
- 4 ABAB raiseA · understoodB · praiseA · goodB
- 5 ABAB prayA · lendB · dayA · friendB
- 6 ABAB bandsA · fallB · landsA · allB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How happy is he born or taught, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That serveth not anothers will; | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Whose armour is his honest thought, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And simple truth his highest skill: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Whose passions not his masters are; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Whose soul is still prepar'd for death; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Not ty'd unto the world with care | 8 | ········ |
| Of princes ear, or vulgar breath: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Who hath his life from rumours freed; | 8 | ······˘· |
| Whose conscience is his strong retreat: | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Whose state can neither flatterers feed, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Nor ruine make oppressors great: | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Who envies none, whom chance doth raise, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Or vice: Who never understood | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| How deepest wounds are given with praise; | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| Nor rules of state, but rules of good: | 8 | ········ |
| Who God doth late and early pray | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| More of his grace than gifts to lend; | 8 | ········ |
| And entertaines the harmless day | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| With a well-chosen book or friend. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| This man is freed from servile bands | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of hope to rise, or feare to fall; | 8 | ········ |
| Lord of himselfe, though not of lands; | 8 | ········ |
| And having nothing, yet hath all. | 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.