Verses Written in the Folio Album of a Learned Friend
Once wisdom dwelt in tomes of ponderous size,While friendship from a pocketbook would talk;But now that knowledge in small compass lies,And floats in almanacs, as light as cork,Courageous man, thou dost not hesitateTo open for thy friends this house so great!Hast thou no fear, I seriously would ask,That thou may'st thus their patience overtask?
Words in this poem
- pocketbook n.
- A small book or case for carrying papers, money, etc., in the pocket; also, a notebook for the pocket.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- overtask v. t.
- To task too heavily.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Verses Written in the Folio Album of a Learned Friend is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Schiller — Third period, Project Gutenberg ebook #6796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Friedrich Schiller, Verses Written in the Folio Album of a Learned Friend, in The Poems of Schiller: Third Period (1805), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/schiller-third-period/verses-written-in-the-folio-album-of-a-learned-friend.html, id L21919.
Form and metre
Verses Written in the Folio Album of a Learned Friend is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 A-A-BBCC sizeA · talk · liesA · cork · hesitateB · greatB · askC · overtaskC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Once wisdom dwelt in tomes of ponderous size, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| While friendship from a pocketbook would talk; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| But now that knowledge in small compass lies, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And floats in almanacs, as light as cork, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Courageous man, thou dost not hesitate | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| To open for thy friends this house so great! | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Hast thou no fear, I seriously would ask, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| That thou may'st thus their patience overtask? | 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.