On Burning a Dull Poem
An ass's hoof alone can holdThat poisonous juice, which kills by cold.Methought, when I this poem read,No vessel but an ass's headSuch frigid fustian could contain;I mean, the head without the brain.The cold conceits, the chilling thoughts,Went down like stupifying draughts;I found my head begin to swim,A numbness crept through every limb.In haste, with imprecations dire,I threw the volume in the fire;When, (who could think?) though cold as ice,It burnt to ashes in a trice.How could I more enhance its fame?Though born in snow, it died in flame.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- dire a.
- Ill-boding; portentous; as, dire omens. [L. dirus; of uncertain origin.]
- trice v. t.
- To pull; to haul; to drag; to pull away. [OE. trisen; of Scand. or Low German origin; cf. Sw. trissa a sheave, pulley, triss a spritsail brace, Dan. tridse a pulley, tridse to haul by means of a pulley,]
- enhance v. t.
- To raise or lift up; to exalt. Wyclif. [Norm. F. enhauncer, enhaucer, OF. enhaleier, enhaucier; pref. en- (L. in) + haucier to lift, raise up, from an assumed L. altiare, fr. L. altus high; cf. Pr. en]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On Burning a Dull Poem 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 Burning a Dull Poem, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/on-burning-a-dull-poem.html, id L25617.
Form and metre
On Burning a Dull Poem is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 88% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 AABBCC--DDEEFFGG holdA · coldA · readB · headB · containC · brainC · thoughts · draughts · swimD · limbD · direE · fireE · iceF · triceF · fameG · flameG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| An ass's hoof alone can hold | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| That poisonous juice, which kills by cold. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Methought, when I this poem read, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| No vessel but an ass's head | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Such frigid fustian could contain; | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| I mean, the head without the brain. | 8 | ········ |
| The cold conceits, the chilling thoughts, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Went down like stupifying draughts; | 7 | ······· |
| I found my head begin to swim, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| A numbness crept through every limb. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| In haste, with imprecations dire, | 8 | ········ |
| I threw the volume in the fire; | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| When, (who could think?) though cold as ice, | 8 | ········ |
| It burnt to ashes in a trice. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| How could I more enhance its fame? | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Though born in snow, it died in flame. | 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.