On Another Window
A bard, on whom Phoebus his spirit bestow'd,Resolving t'acknowledge the bounty he owed,Found out a new method at once of confessing,And making the most of so mighty a blessing:To the God he'd be grateful; but mortals he'd chouse,By making his patron preside in his house;And wisely foresaw this advantage from thence,That the God would in honour bear most of th'expense;So the bard he finds drink, and leaves Phoebus to treatWith the thoughts he inspires, regardless of meat.Hence they that come hither expecting to dine,Are always fobb'd off with sheer wit and sheer wine.
Words in this poem
- phoebus n.
- Apollo; the sun god.
- 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.]
- chouse v. t.
- To cheat, trick, defraud; -- followed by of, or out of; as, to chouse one out of his money. [From Turk. cha\'d4sh a messenger or interpreter, one of whom, attached to the Turkish embassy, in 1609 cheated the Turkish merchants resident in England out of ]
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- 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]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On Another Window 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 Another Window, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/on-another-window.html, id L24508.
Form and metre
On Another Window is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFF bestow'dA · owedA · confessingB · blessingB · chouseC · houseC · thenceD · th'expenseD · treatE · meatE · dineF · wineF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A bard, on whom Phoebus his spirit bestow'd, | 11 | ····/˘·/˘˘/ |
| Resolving t'acknowledge the bounty he owed, | 11 | ˘/˘····/˘·· |
| Found out a new method at once of confessing, | 12 | ····/˘···˘/˘ |
| And making the most of so mighty a blessing: | 12 | ·/˘····/˘·/˘ |
| To the God he'd be grateful; but mortals he'd chouse, | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘·· |
| By making his patron preside in his house; | 11 | ·/˘·/˘˘/··· |
| And wisely foresaw this advantage from thence, | 11 | ·/˘·/·˘/˘·· |
| That the God would in honour bear most of th'expense; | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| So the bard he finds drink, and leaves Phoebus to treat | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| With the thoughts he inspires, regardless of meat. | 11 | ····˘/˘/˘·· |
| Hence they that come hither expecting to dine, | 11 | ····/˘˘/˘·· |
| Are always fobb'd off with sheer wit and sheer wine. | 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.