To the Youngest Daughter of Lady
Ah! why with tell-tale tongue revealWhat most her blushes would conceal?Why lift that modest veil to traceThe seraph-sweetness of her face?Some fairer, better sport prefer;And feel for us, if not for her.For this presumption, soon or late,Know thine shall be a kindred fate.Another shall in vengeance rise—Sing Harriet’s cheeks, and Harriet’s eyes;And, echoing back her wood-notes wild,—Trace all the mother in the child!
Words in this poem
- 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
To the Youngest Daughter of Lady is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #13586; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Samuel Rogers, To the Youngest Daughter of Lady, in Poems (1792–1834), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13586, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rogers-poems/to-the-youngest-daughter-of-lady.html, id L09740.
Form and metre
To the Youngest Daughter of Lady is 12 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 85%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABBCCDDEEFF revealA · concealA · traceB · faceB · preferC · herC · lateD · fateD · riseE · eyesE · wildF · childF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ah! why with tell-tale tongue reveal | 8 | ······˘/ |
| What most her blushes would conceal? | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Why lift that modest veil to trace | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The seraph-sweetness of her face? | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Some fairer, better sport prefer; | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| And feel for us, if not for her. | 8 | ········ |
| For this presumption, soon or late, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Know thine shall be a kindred fate. | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| Another shall in vengeance rise— | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| Sing Harriet’s cheeks, and Harriet’s eyes; | 10 | ·/˘˘··/˘˘· |
| And, echoing back her wood-notes wild, | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| —Trace all the mother in the child! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
Notes from the edition 1
Samuel Rogers's own notes to his Poems (Project Gutenberg #13586).
- Line 2 Alluding to some verses which she had written on an elder sister.
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.