Dr. Delany's Villa
WOULD you that Delville I describe?Believe me, Sir, I will not gibe:For who would be satiricalUpon a thing so very small?You scarce upon the borders enter,Before you're at the very centre.A single crow can make it night,When o'er your farm she takes her flight:Yet, in this narrow compass, weObserve a vast variety;Both walks, walls, meadows, and parterres,Windows and doors, and rooms and stairs,And hills and dales, and woods and fields,And hay, and grass, and corn, it yields:All to your haggard brought so cheap in,Without the mowing or the reaping:A razor, though to say't I'm loth,Would shave you and your meadows both.Though small's the farm, yet here's a houseFull large to entertain a mouse;But where a rat is dreaded moreThan savage Caledonian boar;For, if it's enter'd by a rat,There is no room to bring a cat.A little rivulet seems to stealDown through a thing you call a vale,Like tears adown a wrinkled cheek,Like rain along a blade of leek:And this you call your sweet meander,Which might be suck'd up by a gander,Could he but force his nether billTo scoop the channel of the rill.For sure you'd make a mighty clutter,Were it as big as city gutter.Next come I to your kitchen garden,Where one poor mouse would fare but hard in;And round this garden is a walkNo longer than a tailor's chalk;Thus I compare what space is in it,A snail creeps round it in a minute.One lettuce makes a shift to squeezeUp through a tuft you call your trees:And, once a year, a single rosePeeps from the bud, but never blows;In vain then you expect its bloom!It cannot blow for want of room.In short, in all your boasted seat,There's nothing but yourself that's GREAT.
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
- haggard a.
- Wild or intractable; disposed to break away from duty; untamed; as, a haggard or refractory hawk. Shak [F. hagard; of German origin, and prop. meaning, of the hegde or woods, wild, untamed. See Hedge, 1st Haw, and -ard.]
- caledonian a.
- Of or pertaining to Caledonia or Scotland; Scottish; Scotch.
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- adown adv.
- From a higher to a lower situation; downward; down, to or on the ground. [OE. adun, adoun, adune. AS. of dune off the hill. See Down.]
- gander n.
- The male of any species of goose. [AS. gandra, ganra, akin to Prov. G. gander, ganter, and E. goose, gannet. See Goose.]
- nether a.
- Situated down or below; lying beneath, or in the lower part; having a lower position; belonging to the region below; lower; under; -- opposed to upper. [OE. nethere, neithere, AS. ni, fr. the adv. ni downward; akin to neo below, beneath, D. neder down, G. nieder, Sw. nedre below, nether, a. & adv., and also to S]
- rill n.
- A very small brook; a streamlet. [Cf. LG. rille a small channel or brook, a furrow, a chamfer, OE. rigol a small brook, F. rigole a trench or furrow for water, W. rhill a row, rhigol a little di]
- clutter v. t.
- To clot or coagulate, as blood. Holland. [From Clod, n.]
- expect v. t.
- To wait for; to await. [L. expectatum, to look out for, await, expect; ex + out spectare to look at. See Spectacle.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dr. Delany's Villa 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, Dr. Delany's Villa, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/dr-delany-s-villa.html, id L25610.
Form and metre
Dr. Delany's Villa is 48 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 71% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 AABBCCDD--EEFF----GGHHII--JJKKLLMM----NNOOPPQQ-- describeA · gibeA · satiricalB · smallB · enterC · centreC · nightD · flightD · we · variety · parterresE · stairsE · fieldsF · yieldsF · in · reaping · loth · both · houseG · mouseG · moreH · boarH · ratI · catI · steal · vale · cheekJ · leekJ · meanderK · ganderK · billL · rillL · clutterM · gutterM · garden · in · walk · chalk · itN · minuteN · squeezeO · treesO · roseP · blowsP · bloomQ · roomQ · seat · great
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 |
|---|---|---|
| WOULD you that Delville I describe? | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| Believe me, Sir, I will not gibe: | 8 | ˘/······ |
| For who would be satirical | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| Upon a thing so very small? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| You scarce upon the borders enter, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Before you're at the very centre. | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| A single crow can make it night, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| When o'er your farm she takes her flight: | 8 | ········ |
| Yet, in this narrow compass, we | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Observe a vast variety; | 8 | ˘/··˘/˘˘ |
| Both walks, walls, meadows, and parterres, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Windows and doors, and rooms and stairs, | 8 | /˘······ |
| And hills and dales, and woods and fields, | 8 | ········ |
| And hay, and grass, and corn, it yields: | 8 | ········ |
| All to your haggard brought so cheap in, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Without the mowing or the reaping: | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| A razor, though to say't I'm loth, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Would shave you and your meadows both. | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Though small's the farm, yet here's a house | 8 | ········ |
| Full large to entertain a mouse; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| But where a rat is dreaded more | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Than savage Caledonian boar; | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| For, if it's enter'd by a rat, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| There is no room to bring a cat. | 8 | ········ |
| A little rivulet seems to steal | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘··· |
| Down through a thing you call a vale, | 8 | ········ |
| Like tears adown a wrinkled cheek, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Like rain along a blade of leek: | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And this you call your sweet meander, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Which might be suck'd up by a gander, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Could he but force his nether bill | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To scoop the channel of the rill. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For sure you'd make a mighty clutter, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Were it as big as city gutter. | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Next come I to your kitchen garden, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Where one poor mouse would fare but hard in; | 9 | ········· |
| And round this garden is a walk | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| No longer than a tailor's chalk; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Thus I compare what space is in it, | 9 | ··˘/····· |
| A snail creeps round it in a minute. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| One lettuce makes a shift to squeeze | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Up through a tuft you call your trees: | 8 | ········ |
| And, once a year, a single rose | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Peeps from the bud, but never blows; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In vain then you expect its bloom! | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| It cannot blow for want of room. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In short, in all your boasted seat, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| There's nothing but yourself that's GREAT. | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
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