On a Curate's Complaint of Hard Duty
I marched three miles through scorching sand,With zeal in heart, and notes in hand;I rode four more to Great St. Mary,Using four legs, when two were weary:To three fair virgins I did tie men,In the close bands of pleasing Hymen;I dipp'd two babes in holy water,And purified their mother after.Within an hour and eke a half,I preach'd three congregations deaf;Where, thundering out, with lungs long-winded,I chopp'd so fast, that few there minded.My emblem, the laborious sun,Saw all these mighty labours doneBefore one race of his was run.All this perform'd by Robert Hewit:What mortal else could e'er go through it!
Words in this poem
- scorching a.
- Burning; parching or shriveling with heat.
- rode n.
- Redness; complexion. [See Rud.]
- hymen n.
- A fold of muscous membrane often found at the orifice of the vagina; the vaginal membrane.
- thundering a.
- Emitting thunder.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On a Curate's Complaint of Hard Duty 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, On a Curate's Complaint of Hard Duty, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/on-a-curate-s-complaint-of-hard-duty.html, id L24596.
Form and metre
On a Curate's Complaint of Hard Duty is 17 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See 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 AA--BB----CCDDD-- sandA · handA · mary · weary · menB · hymenB · water · after · half · deaf · windedC · mindedC · sunD · doneD · runD · hewit · it
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I marched three miles through scorching sand, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With zeal in heart, and notes in hand; | 8 | ········ |
| I rode four more to Great St. Mary, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Using four legs, when two were weary: | 9 | /˘·····/˘ |
| To three fair virgins I did tie men, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| In the close bands of pleasing Hymen; | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| I dipp'd two babes in holy water, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| And purified their mother after. | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·· |
| Within an hour and eke a half, | 8 | ···/···· |
| I preach'd three congregations deaf; | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Where, thundering out, with lungs long-winded, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| I chopp'd so fast, that few there minded. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| My emblem, the laborious sun, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Saw all these mighty labours done | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Before one race of his was run. | 8 | ········ |
| All this perform'd by Robert Hewit: | 9 | ··˘/·/˘·· |
| What mortal else could e'er go through it! | 9 | ·/˘······ |
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.