Doctor of Billiards
Of all among the fallen from on high,We count you last and leave you to regainYour born dominion of a life made vainBy three spheres of insidious ivory.You dwindle to the lesser tragedy--Content, you say. We call, but you remain.Nothing alive gone wrong could be so plain,Or quite so blasted with absurdity.You click away the kingdom that is yours,And you click off your crown for cap and bells;You smile, who are still master of the feast,And for your smile we credit you the least;But when your false, unhallowed laugh occurs,We seem to think there may be something else.
Words in this poem
- insidious a.
- Lying in wait; watching an opportunity to insnare or entrap; deceitful; sly; treacherous; -- said of persons; as, the insidious foe. [L. insidiosus, fr. insidiae an ambush, fr. insidere to sit in; pref. in- + sedere to sit: cf. F. insidieux. See Sit.]
- dwindle v. i.
- To diminish; to become less; to shrink; to waste or consume away; to become degenerate; to fall away. [From OE. dwinen to languish, waste away, AS. dwinan; akin to LG. dwinen, D. dwijnen to vanish, Icel. dvina to cease, dwindle, Sw. tvina; of uncertain origin. Th]
- blasted a.
- Blighted; withered.
- unhallowed a.
- Not consecrated; hence, profane; unholy; impious; wicked. [Pref. un- not + hallowed.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Doctor of Billiards is in the public domain. This text is taken from The town down the river, Project Gutenberg ebook #76699; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Arlington Robinson, Doctor of Billiards, in The Town Down the River (1910), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #76699, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/robinson-town-down-river/doctor-of-billiards.html, id L17206.
Form and metre
Doctor of Billiards is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.8 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
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 -AA--AA-B-CCB- high · regainA · vainA · ivory · tragedy · remainA · plainA · absurdity · yoursB · bells · feastC · leastC · occursB · else
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Of all among the fallen from on high, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| We count you last and leave you to regain | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Your born dominion of a life made vain | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| By three spheres of insidious ivory. | 9 | ····˘/˘/˘ |
| You dwindle to the lesser tragedy-- | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Content, you say. We call, but you remain. | 10 | ˘/······˘/ |
| Nothing alive gone wrong could be so plain, | 10 | /˘˘/······ |
| Or quite so blasted with absurdity. | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| You click away the kingdom that is yours, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| And you click off your crown for cap and bells; | 10 | ·········· |
| You smile, who are still master of the feast, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And for your smile we credit you the least; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But when your false, unhallowed laugh occurs, | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| We seem to think there may be something else. | 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.