On One of the Windows at Delville
A bard, grown desirous of saving his pelf,Built a house he was sure would hold none but himself.This enraged god Apollo, who Mercury sent,And bid him go ask what his votary meant?"Some foe to my empire has been his adviser:'Tis of dreadful portent when a poet turns miser!Tell him, Hermes, from me, tell that subject of mine,I have sworn by the Styx, to defeat his design;For wherever he lives, the Muses shall reign;And the Muses, he knows, have a numerous train."
Words in this poem
- pelf n.
- Money; riches; lucre; gain; -- generally conveying the idea of something ill-gotten or worthless. It has no plural. [OE. pelfir booty, OF. pelfre, akin to pelfrer to plunder, and perh. to E. pillage. Cf. Pilfer.]
- dreadful a.
- Full of dread or terror; fearful.
- portent n.
- That which portends, or foretoken; esp., that which portends evil; a sign of coming calamity; an omen; a sign. [L. portentum. See Portend.]
- styx n.
- The principal river of the lower world, which had to be crossed in passing to the regions of the dead.
- defeat v. t.
- To undo; to disfigure; to destroy. [From F. défait, OF. desfait, p. p. ofe défaire, OF. desfaire, to undo; L. dis- + facere to do. See Feat, Fact, and cf. Disfashion.]
- wherever adv.
- At or in whatever place; wheresoever.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On One of the Windows at Delville 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 One of the Windows at Delville, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/on-one-of-the-windows-at-delville.html, id L24523.
Form and metre
On One of the Windows at Delville is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 AABBCCDDEE pelfA · himselfA · sentB · meantB · adviserC · miserC · mineD · designD · reignE · trainE
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, grown desirous of saving his pelf, | 11 | ···˘/˘·/˘·· |
| Built a house he was sure would hold none but himself. | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| This enraged god Apollo, who Mercury sent, | 12 | ·˘/·˘/˘·/˘˘· |
| And bid him go ask what his votary meant? | 11 | ·······/˘˘· |
| "Some foe to my empire has been his adviser: | 13 | ····/˘˘···˘/˘ |
| 'Tis of dreadful portent when a poet turns miser! | 13 | ··/˘/˘··/˘·/˘ |
| Tell him, Hermes, from me, tell that subject of mine, | 12 | ··/˘····/˘·· |
| I have sworn by the Styx, to defeat his design; | 12 | ·······˘/·˘/ |
| For wherever he lives, the Muses shall reign; | 11 | ·˘/˘···/˘·· |
| And the Muses, he knows, have a numerous train." | 12 | ··/˘····/˘˘· |
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.