Dr. Swift to Himself on St. Cecilia's Day
Grave Dean of St. Patrick's, how comes it to pass,That you, who know music no more than an ass,That you who so lately were writing of drapiers,Should lend your cathedral to players and scrapers?To act such an opera once in a year,So offensive to every true Protestant ear,With trumpets, and fiddles, and organs, and singing,Will sure the Pretender and Popery bring in,No Protestant Prelate, his lordship or grace,Durst there show his right, or most reverend face:How would it pollute their crosiers and rochets,To listen to minims, and quavers, and crochets!
Words in this poem
- trumpets n.
- A plant (Sarracenia flava) with long, hollow leaves.
- reverend a.
- Worthy of reverence; entitled to respect mingled with fear and affection; venerable. [F. révérend, L. reverendus, fr. revereri. See Revere.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dr. Swift to Himself on St. Cecilia's Day 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. Swift to Himself on St. Cecilia's Day, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/dr-swift-to-himself-on-st-cecilia-s-day.html, id L25636.
Form and metre
Dr. Swift to Himself on St. Cecilia's Day is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in anapaestic 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 AA--BB--CCDD passA · assA · drapiers · scrapers · yearB · earB · singing · in · graceC · faceC · rochetsD · crochetsD
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Grave Dean of St. Patrick's, how comes it to pass, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| That you, who know music no more than an ass, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| That you who so lately were writing of drapiers, | 12 | ····/˘·/˘··· |
| Should lend your cathedral to players and scrapers? | 12 | ···˘/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| To act such an opera once in a year, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| So offensive to every true Protestant ear, | 11 | ·˘/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| With trumpets, and fiddles, and organs, and singing, | 12 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Will sure the Pretender and Popery bring in, | 12 | ···˘/˘·/˘˘·· |
| No Protestant Prelate, his lordship or grace, | 11 | ·/˘˘/··/˘·· |
| Durst there show his right, or most reverend face: | 11 | ·······/˘˘· |
| How would it pollute their crosiers and rochets, | 11 | ···˘/······ |
| To listen to minims, and quavers, and crochets! | 12 | ·/˘····/˘·˘/ |
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.