After an Epigram of Clement Marot
The lad I was I longer nowNor am nor shall be evermore.Spring's lovely blossoms from my browHave shed their petals on the floor.Above all gods' best served by me.Dear Love, could life again be mineHow bettered should that service be!
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,]
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
After an Epigram of Clement Marot is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #617; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alan Seeger, After an Epigram of Clement Marot, in Poems (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #617, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seeger-poems/after-an-epigram-of-clement-marot.html, id L12973.
Form and metre
After an Epigram of Clement Marot is 7 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables.
See 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 ABABC-C nowA · evermoreB · browA · floorB · meC · mine · beC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The lad I was I longer now | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Nor am nor shall be evermore. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Spring's lovely blossoms from my brow | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Have shed their petals on the floor. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Above all gods' best served by me. | 9 | ······˘·· |
| Dear Love, could life again be mine | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| How bettered should that service be! | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
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.