Drawn from the Above Epigrams, and Sent to the Drapier
Since Anna, whose bounty thy merits had fed,Ere her own was laid low, had exalted thy head:And since our good queen to the wise is so just,To raise heads for such as are humbled in dust,I wonder, good man, that you are not envaulted;Prithee go, and be dead, and be doubly exalted.
Words in this poem
- anna n.
- An East Indian money of account, the sixteenth of a rupee, or about 2 [Hindi ana.]
- bounty n.
- Goodness, kindness; virtue; worth. [OE. bounte goodness, kindness, F. bonté, fr. L. bonitas, fr. bonus good, for older duonus; cf. Skr. duvas honor, respect.]
- prithee interj.
- A corruption of pray thee; as, I prithee; generally used without I.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Drawn from the Above Epigrams, and Sent to the Drapier 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, Drawn from the Above Epigrams, and Sent to the Drapier, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/drawn-from-the-above-epigrams-and-sent-to-the-drapier.html, id L24560.
Form and metre
Drawn from the Above Epigrams, and Sent to the Drapier is 6 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 AABBCC fedA · headA · justB · dustB · envaultedC · exaltedC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Since Anna, whose bounty thy merits had fed, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| Ere her own was laid low, had exalted thy head: | 12 | ·······˘/˘·· |
| And since our good queen to the wise is so just, | 11 | ··/········ |
| To raise heads for such as are humbled in dust, | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| I wonder, good man, that you are not envaulted; | 12 | ·/˘········· |
| Prithee go, and be dead, and be doubly exalted. | 13 | /˘······/˘˘/˘ |
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.