Prologue
'Twas never yet my luck, I ween,To drench my lips in Hippocrene;Nor, if I recollect aright,On the forked Hill to sleep a night,That I, like others of the trade,Might wake--a poet ready made!Thee, Helicon, with all the Nine,And pale Pyrene, I resign,Unenvied, to the tuneful race,Whose busts (of many a fane the grace)Sequacious ivy climbs, and spreadsUnfading verdure round their heads.Enough for me, too mean for praise,To bear my rude, uncultured laysTo Phœbus and the Muses' shrine,And place them near their gifts divine.Who bade the parrot χαῖρε cry;And forced our language on the pie?The BELLY: Master, he, of Arts,Bestower of ingenious parts;Powerful the creatures to endueWith sounds their natures never knew!For, let the wily hand unfoldThe glittering bait of tempting gold,And straight the choir of daws and pies,To such poetic heights shall rise,That, lost in wonder, you will swearApollo and the Nine are there!
Words in this poem
- ween v. i.
- To think; to imagine; to fancy. [OE. wenen, AS. w, fr. w hope, expectation, opinion; akin to D. waan, OFries. w, OS. & OHG. wan, G. wahn delusion, Icel. van hope, expectation, Goth. w, and D. w]
- hippocrene n.
- A fountain on Mount Helicon in Boeotia, fabled to have burst forth when the ground was struck by the hoof of Pegasus. Also, its waters, which were supposed to impart poetic inspiration. Keats.
- recollect v. t.
- To recover or recall the knowledge of; to bring back to the mind or memory; to remember. [Pref. re- + collect: cf. L. recolligere, recollectum, to collect. Cf. Recollet.]
- aright adv.
- Rightly; correctly; in a right way or form; without mistake or crime; as, to worship God aright. [Pref. a- + right.]
- helicon n.
- A mountain in Boeotia, in Greece, supposed by the Greeks to be the residence of Apollo and the Muses.
- pyrene n.
- One of the less volatile hydrocarbons of coal tar, obtained as a white crystalline substance, C16H10.
- tuneful a.
- Harmonious; melodious; musical; as, tuneful notes.
- fane n.
- A temple; a place consecrated to religion; a church. [L. fanum a place dedicated to some deity, a sanctuary, fr. fari to speak. See Fame.]
- sequacious a.
- Inclined to follow a leader; following; attendant. [L. sequax, -acis, fr. suquit to follow. See Sue to follow.]
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
- bestower n.
- One that bestows.
- endue v. t.
- To invest. Latham. [L. induere, prob. confused with E. endow. See Indue.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Prologue is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius Literally translated into English prose, with notes, chronological tables, arguments, &c., Project Gutenberg ebook #50657; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Persius, Prologue, in The Satires of Persius (1821), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50657, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/persius-satires/prologue.html, id L23623.
Form and metre
Prologue is 28 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 93%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGDDHHIIJJKKLLMM weenA · hippocreneA · arightB · nightB · tradeC · madeC · nineD · resignD · raceE · graceE · spreadsF · headsF · praiseG · laysG · shrineD · divineD · cryH · pieH · artsI · partsI · endueJ · knewJ · unfoldK · goldK · piesL · riseL · swearM · thereM
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 'Twas never yet my luck, I ween, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To drench my lips in Hippocrene; | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Nor, if I recollect aright, | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| On the forked Hill to sleep a night, | 8 | ········ |
| That I, like others of the trade, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Might wake--a poet ready made! | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Thee, Helicon, with all the Nine, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And pale Pyrene, I resign, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Unenvied, to the tuneful race, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Whose busts (of many a fane the grace) | 8 | ···/···· |
| Sequacious ivy climbs, and spreads | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| Unfading verdure round their heads. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Enough for me, too mean for praise, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| To bear my rude, uncultured lays | 8 | ········ |
| To Phœbus and the Muses' shrine, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And place them near their gifts divine. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Who bade the parrot χαῖρε cry; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And forced our language on the pie? | 8 | ··//˘··· |
| The BELLY: Master, he, of Arts, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Bestower of ingenious parts; | 8 | ˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Powerful the creatures to endue | 8 | /˘·/˘·˘/ |
| With sounds their natures never knew! | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| For, let the wily hand unfold | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| The glittering bait of tempting gold, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And straight the choir of daws and pies, | 8 | ···/···· |
| To such poetic heights shall rise, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| That, lost in wonder, you will swear | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Apollo and the Nine are there! | 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.