A Fragment from Mark Antony’s Speech
This was the noblest Roman of them all:All the conspirators, save only he,Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar;He only, in a general honest thoughtAnd common good to all, made one of them.His life was gentle; and the elementsSo mix’d in him, that Nature might stand up,And say to all the world, “This was a man!”
About this text
A Fragment from Mark Antony’s Speech is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mary E. Burt, A Fragment from Mark Antony’s Speech, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/a-fragment-from-mark-antony-s-speech.html, id L25320.
Form and metre
A Fragment from Mark Antony’s Speech is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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.
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| This was the noblest Roman of them all: | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| All the conspirators, save only he, | 10 | ··˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| He only, in a general honest thought | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| And common good to all, made one of them. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| His life was gentle; and the elements | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| So mix’d in him, that Nature might stand up, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And say to all the world, “This was a man!” | 10 | ·········· |
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.