Epigrams on Windows: I. On a Window at an Inn
We fly from luxury and wealth,To hardships, in pursuit of health;From generous wines, and costly fare,And dozing in an easy-chair;Pursue the goddess Health in vain,To find her in a country scene,And every where her footsteps trace,And see her marks in every face;And still her favourites we meet,Crowding the roads with naked feet.But, oh! so faintly we pursue,We ne'er can have her full in view.
Words in this poem
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- generous a.
- Of honorable birth or origin; highborn. [F. généreux, fr. L. generous of noble birth, noble, excellent, magnanimous, fr. genus birth, race: cf. It. generoso. See 2d Gender.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epigrams on Windows: I. On a Window at an Inn 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, Epigrams on Windows: I. On a Window at an Inn, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/epigrams-on-windows-i-on-a-window-at-an-inn.html, id L24585.
Form and metre
Epigrams on Windows: I. On a Window at an Inn is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 83% 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 AABB--CCDDEE wealthA · healthA · fareB · chairB · vain · scene · traceC · faceC · meetD · feetD · pursueE · viewE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We fly from luxury and wealth, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| To hardships, in pursuit of health; | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| From generous wines, and costly fare, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And dozing in an easy-chair; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Pursue the goddess Health in vain, | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| To find her in a country scene, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And every where her footsteps trace, | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| And see her marks in every face; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And still her favourites we meet, | 8 | ········ |
| Crowding the roads with naked feet. | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| But, oh! so faintly we pursue, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| We ne'er can have her full in view. | 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.