Opportunity
Bald, naked, of a human shape,With fleet wings ready to escape,Upon a razor's edge his toes,And lock that on his forehead grows--Him hold, when seized, for goodness' sake,For Jove himself cannot retakeThe fugitive when once he's gone.The picture that we here have drawnIs Opportunity so brief.--The ancients, in a bas-relief,Thus made an effigy of Time,That every one might use their prime;Nor e'er impede, by dull delay,Th' effectual business of to-day.
Words in this poem
- jove n.
- The chief divinity of the ancient Romans; Jupiter. [L. Jupiter, gen. Jovis, OL. Jovis, nom. & gen. for Djovis; akin to E. Tuesday. See Tuesday, and cf. Jupiter.]
- retake v. t.
- To take or receive again.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Opportunity is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Fables of Phædrus Literally translated into English prose with notes, Project Gutenberg ebook #25512; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Phaedrus, Opportunity, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/opportunity.html, id L21323.
Form and metre
Opportunity is 14 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 86%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG shapeA · escapeA · toesB · growsB · sakeC · retakeC · goneD · drawnD · briefE · reliefE · timeF · primeF · delayG · dayG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Bald, naked, of a human shape, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| With fleet wings ready to escape, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Upon a razor's edge his toes, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And lock that on his forehead grows-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Him hold, when seized, for goodness' sake, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For Jove himself cannot retake | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘/ |
| The fugitive when once he's gone. | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| The picture that we here have drawn | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Is Opportunity so brief.-- | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| The ancients, in a bas-relief, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Thus made an effigy of Time, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| That every one might use their prime; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Nor e'er impede, by dull delay, | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| Th' effectual business of to-day. | 9 | ˘/˘˘/˘··· |
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.