A Song: Vulcan contrive me such a Cup
Vulcan contrive me such a CupAs Nestor us'd of old:Shew all thy Skill to trim it up;Damask it round with Gold.
Make it so large that, fill'd with SackUp to the swelling Brim,Vast Toasts on the delicious Lake,Like Ships at Sea, may swim.
Engrave not Battel on his Cheek;With War I've nought to do:I'm none of those that took Mastrick,Nor Yarmouth Leaguer knew.
Let it no Name of Planets tell,Fixt Stars, or Constellations:For I am no Sir Sindrophel,Nor none of his Relations.
But carve thereon a spreading Vine;Then add two lovely Boys;Their Limbs in amorious Folds intwine,The Type of future Joys.
Cupid and Bacchus my Saints are;May Drink and Love still reign:With Wine I wash away my Cares,And then to Love again.
Words in this poem
- nestor n.
- A genus of parrots with gray heads. of New Zeland and papua, allied to the cockatoos. See Kaka.
- shew n.
- Show. [Obs. except in shewbread.]
- engrave v. t.
- To deposit in the grave; to bury. [Pref. en- + grave a tomb. Cf. Engrave to carve.]
- battel n.
- A single combat; as, trial by battel. See Wager of battel, under Wager. [Obs. form. of Battle.]
- leaguer v. t.
- To besiege; to beleaguer.
- thereon adv.
- On that or this. [AS. . See There, and On.]
- intwine v. t.
- To twine or twist into, or together; to wreathe; as, a wreath of flowers intwined. [Cf. Entwine.]
- cupid
- The god of love, son of Venus; usually represented as a naked, winged boy with bow and arrow. [L.Cupido, fr. cupido desire, desire of love, fr. cupidus. See Cupidity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Song: Vulcan contrive me such a Cup is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Works of the Right Honourable John, Earl of Rochester Consisting of Satires, Songs, Translations, and other Occasional Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #44891; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Wilmot Rochester, A Song: Vulcan contrive me such a Cup, in The Works of the Earl of Rochester (1680), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #44891, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rochester-works/a-song-vulcan-contrive-me-such-a-cup.html, id L20450.
Form and metre
A Song: Vulcan contrive me such a Cup is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The commonest rhyme scheme is ABAB, in 2 of the 6 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 cupA · oldB · upA · goldB
- 2 -A-A sack · brimA · lake · swimA
- 3 -A-A cheek · doA · mastrick · knewA
- 4 -A-A tell · constellationsA · sindrophel · relationsA
- 5 ABAB vineA · boysB · intwineA · joysB
- 6 -A-A are · reignA · cares · againA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Vulcan contrive me such a Cup | 8 | /˘˘/···· |
| As Nestor us'd of old: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Shew all thy Skill to trim it up; | 8 | ········ |
| Damask it round with Gold. | 6 | /˘···· |
| Make it so large that, fill'd with Sack | 8 | ········ |
| Up to the swelling Brim, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Vast Toasts on the delicious Lake, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Like Ships at Sea, may swim. | 6 | ······ |
| Engrave not Battel on his Cheek; | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| With War I've nought to do: | 6 | ······ |
| I'm none of those that took Mastrick, | 8 | ········ |
| Nor Yarmouth Leaguer knew. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Let it no Name of Planets tell, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Fixt Stars, or Constellations: | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| For I am no Sir Sindrophel, | 8 | ········ |
| Nor none of his Relations. | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| But carve thereon a spreading Vine; | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Then add two lovely Boys; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Their Limbs in amorious Folds intwine, | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| The Type of future Joys. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Cupid and Bacchus my Saints are; | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| May Drink and Love still reign: | 6 | ······ |
| With Wine I wash away my Cares, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And then to Love again. | 6 | ····˘/ |
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.