Peter Bell the Third
Is it a party in a parlour,Crammed just as they on earth were crammed,Some sipping punch--some sipping tea;But, as you by their faces see,All silent, and all--damned!"Peter Bell", by W. WORDSWORTH.
OPHELIA.--What means this, my lord?HAMLET.--Marry, this is Miching Mallecho; it means mischief.
Words in this poem
- damned a.
- Sentenced to punishment in a future state; condemned; consigned to perdition.
- miching a.
- Hiding; skulking; cowardly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Peter Bell the Third is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #4797; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Peter Bell the Third, in Alastor, and Other Poems (1813–1820), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4797, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-poems/peter-bell-the-third.html, id L00254.
Form and metre
Peter Bell the Third is 8 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
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 -ABBA- parlour · crammedA · teaB · seeB · damnedA · wordsworth
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Is it a party in a parlour, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Crammed just as they on earth were crammed, | 8 | ········ |
| Some sipping punch--some sipping tea; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But, as you by their faces see, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| All silent, and all--damned! | 7 | ·/˘···˘ |
| "Peter Bell", by W. WORDSWORTH. | 9 | /˘··/˘˘/˘ |
| OPHELIA.--What means this, my lord? | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| HAMLET.--Marry, this is Miching Mallecho; it means mischief. | 15 | /˘/˘··/˘/˘˘··/˘ |
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.