Epitaph on General Gorges, and Lady Meath
Under this stone lies Dick and Dolly.Doll dying first, Dick grew melancholy;For Dick without Doll thought living a folly.
Dick lost in Doll a wife tender and dear:But Dick lost by Doll twelve hundred a-year;A loss that Dick thought no mortal could bear.
Dick sigh'd for his Doll, and his mournful arms cross'd;Thought much of his Doll, and the jointure he lost;The first vex'd him much, the other vex'd most.
Thus loaded with grief, Dick sigh'd and he cried:To live without both full three days he tried;But liked neither loss, and so quietly died.
Dick left a pattern few will copy after:Then, reader, pray shed some tears of salt water;For so sad a tale is no subject of laughter.Meath smiles for the jointure, though gotten so late;The son laughs, that got the hard-gotten estate;And Cuffe grins, for getting the Alicant plate.
Here quiet they lie, in hopes to rise one day,Both solemnly put in this hole on a Sunday,And here rest----sic transit gloria mundi!
Words in this poem
- dolly n.
- A contrivance, turning on a vertical axis by a handle or winch, and giving a circular motion to the ore to be washed; a stirrer.
- jointure n.
- A joining; a joint. [F. jointure a joint, orig., a joining, L. junctura, fr. jungere to join. See Join, and cf. Juncture.]
- meath n.
- A sweet liquor; mead. Chaucer. [See Mead.]
- alicant n.
- A kind of wine, formerly much esteemed; -- said to have been made near Alicant, in Spain. J. Fletcher.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epitaph on General Gorges, and Lady Meath 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, Epitaph on General Gorges, and Lady Meath, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/epitaph-on-general-gorges-and-lady-meath.html, id L24603.
Form and metre
Epitaph on General Gorges, and Lady Meath is 21 lines in 6 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AAA dollyA · melancholyA · follyA
- 2 AAA dearA · yearA · bearA
- 3 AA- cross'dA · lostA · most
- 4 AAA criedA · triedA · diedA
- 5 A-ABBB afterA · water · laughterA · lateB · estateB · plateB
- 6 AA- dayA · sundayA · mundi
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Under this stone lies Dick and Dolly. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Doll dying first, Dick grew melancholy; | 10 | ·/˘···/˘·˘ |
| For Dick without Doll thought living a folly. | 11 | ······/˘·/˘ |
| Dick lost in Doll a wife tender and dear: | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| But Dick lost by Doll twelve hundred a-year; | 11 | ······/˘˘·· |
| A loss that Dick thought no mortal could bear. | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Dick sigh'd for his Doll, and his mournful arms cross'd; | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Thought much of his Doll, and the jointure he lost; | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| The first vex'd him much, the other vex'd most. | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Thus loaded with grief, Dick sigh'd and he cried: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| To live without both full three days he tried; | 10 | ·········· |
| But liked neither loss, and so quietly died. | 11 | ··/˘···/˘˘· |
| Dick left a pattern few will copy after: | 11 | ···/˘··/˘·· |
| Then, reader, pray shed some tears of salt water; | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| For so sad a tale is no subject of laughter. | 12 | ·······˘/·/˘ |
| Meath smiles for the jointure, though gotten so late; | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| The son laughs, that got the hard-gotten estate; | 11 | ·······/˘˘/ |
| And Cuffe grins, for getting the Alicant plate. | 11 | ····/˘·/˘˘· |
| Here quiet they lie, in hopes to rise one day, | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Both solemnly put in this hole on a Sunday, | 11 | ·/˘······/· |
| And here rest----sic transit gloria mundi! | 11 | ····/˘/˘˘/˘ |
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.