Epigram from the French
Who can believe with common sense,A bacon slice gives God offence;Or, how a herring has a charmAlmighty vengeance to disarm?Wrapp'd up in majesty divine,Does he regard on what we dine?
called for some bacon and eggs. The rest were very angry, and reprovedhim for so heinous a sin; whereupon he wrote the following lines, whichare translated above:"Peut-on croire avec bon sensQu'un lardon le mil en colère,Ou, que manger un hareng,C'est un secret pour lui plaire?En sa gloire envelopé,
Words in this poem
- offence n.
- The act of offending in any sense; esp., a crime or a sin, an affront or an injury. [F., fr. L. offensa. See Offend.]
- disarm v. t.
- To deprive of arms; to take away the weapons of; to deprive of the means of attack or defense; to render defenseless. [OE. desarmen, F. désarmer; pref. dés- (L. dis-) + armer to arm. See Arm.]
- dine v. i.
- To eat the principal regular meal of the day; to take dinner. [F. dîner, OF. disner, LL. disnare, contr. fr. an assumed disjunare; dis- + an assumed junare (OF. juner) to fast, for L. jejunare, fr. jejunus fasting. See Jeju]
- angry a.
- Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [See Anger.]
- whereupon adv.
- Upon which; in consequence of which; after which.
- wrote v. i.
- To root with the snout. See 1st Root. [OE. wroten. See 1st Root.]
- lardon n.
- A bit of fat pork or bacon used in larding. [F. lardon, fr. lard lard.]
- manger n.
- A trough or open box in which fodder is placed for horses or cattle to eat. [F. mangeoire, fr. manger to eat, fr. L. manducare, fr. mandere to chew. Cf. Mandible, Manducate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epigram from the French 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, Epigram from the French, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/epigram-from-the-french.html, id L24598.
Form and metre
Epigram from the French is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
See 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 AABBCC senseA · offenceA · charmB · disarmB · divineC · dineC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Who can believe with common sense, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| A bacon slice gives God offence; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Or, how a herring has a charm | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Almighty vengeance to disarm? | 8 | ˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Wrapp'd up in majesty divine, | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| Does he regard on what we dine? | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| called for some bacon and eggs. The rest were very angry, and reproved | 17 | ···/˘·····/˘/˘··· |
| him for so heinous a sin; whereupon he wrote the following lines, which | 17 | ···/˘··/˘/···/˘·· |
| are translated above: | 6 | ·˘/˘·· |
| "Peut-on croire avec bon sens | 7 | ······· |
| Qu'un lardon le mil en colère, | 8 | ········ |
| Ou, que manger un hareng, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| C'est un secret pour lui plaire? | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| En sa gloire envelopé, | 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.