Deplorate

John Skelton (1460–1529) · 1500–1529

iambic trimeter · rhyming couplets · 14 lines · from Poetical Works, Volume I

Loke now in Exodi,And de arca Domini,With Regum by and by;The Bybyll wyll not ly;How the Temple was kept,How the Temple was swept,Where sanguis taurorum,Aut sanguis vitulorum,Was offryd within the wallis,After ceremoniallis;When it was poluted,Sentence was executed,By wey of expiacion,For reconciliacion.

Words in this poem

loke n.
A private path or road; also, the wicket or hatch of a door. [See Lock a fastening.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Deplorate is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of John Skelton, Volume 1 (of 2), Project Gutenberg ebook #59997; 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 Skelton, Deplorate, in Poetical Works, Volume I (1500–1529), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/skelton-poems/deplorate.html, id L08662.

Form and metre

Deplorate is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 71% of the lines. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.4 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.

See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic trimeter.

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. 1 --AABBCC--DDEE exodi · domini · byA · lyA · keptB · sweptB · taurorumC · vitulorumC · wallis · ceremoniallis · polutedD · executedD · expiacionE · reconciliacionE
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 trimeter. How this is done.

LineSyl.Stress
Loke now in Exodi,6······
And de arca Domini,7····/˘˘
With Regum by and by;6······
The Bybyll wyll not ly;6······
How the Temple was kept,6··/˘··
How the Temple was swept,6··/˘··
Where sanguis taurorum,6······
Aut sanguis vitulorum,7·······
Was offryd within the wallis,8······/˘
After ceremoniallis;7·······
When it was poluted,6······
Sentence was executed,7/˘·/˘·˘
By wey of expiacion,6······
For reconciliacion.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.

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