Another, at Holyhead
O Neptune! Neptune! must I stillBe here detain'd against my will?Is this your justice, when I'm comeAbove two hundred miles from home;O'er mountains steep, o'er dusty plains,Half choked with dust, half drown'd with rains,Only your godship to implore,To let me kiss your other shore?A boon so small! but I may weep,While you're like Baal, fast asleep.
Words in this poem
- godship n.
- The rank or character of a god; deity; divinity; a god or goddess. [God, n. + -ship.]
- boon n.
- A prayer or petition. [OE. bone, boin, a petition, fr. Icel. b; akin to Sw. & Dan. b, AS. b, and perh. to E. ban; but influenced by F. bon good, fr. L. bonus. Ban, Bounty.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Another, at Holyhead is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #14353; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Jonathan Swift, Another, at Holyhead, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/another-at-holyhead.html, id L24591.
Form and metre
Another, at Holyhead is 10 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 94%).
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 AABBCCDDEE stillA · willA · comeB · homeB · plainsC · rainsC · imploreD · shoreD · weepE · asleepE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O Neptune! Neptune! must I still | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Be here detain'd against my will? | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Is this your justice, when I'm come | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Above two hundred miles from home; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| O'er mountains steep, o'er dusty plains, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Half choked with dust, half drown'd with rains, | 8 | ········ |
| Only your godship to implore, | 8 | /˘·/˘·˘/ |
| To let me kiss your other shore? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A boon so small! but I may weep, | 8 | ········ |
| While you're like Baal, fast asleep. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
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.