Or, the Receipt to Form a Beauty. 1707
When Cupid did his grandsire Jove entreatTo form some Beauty by a new receipt, Jove sent, and found, far in acountry scene,Truth, innocence, good nature, look serene:From which ingredients first the dext'rous boyPick'd the demure, the awkward, and the coy.The Graces from the court did next provideBreeding, and wit, and air, and decent pride:These Venus cleans'd from ev'ry spurious grainOf nice coquet, affected, pert, and vain.Jove mix'd up all, and the best clay employ'd;Then call'd the happy composition FLOYD.
Words in this poem
- cupid
- The god of love, son of Venus; usually represented as a naked, winged boy with bow and arrow. [L.Cupido, fr. cupido desire, desire of love, fr. cupidus. See Cupidity.]
- grandsire n.
- Specifically, a grandfather; more generally, any ancestor. [OF. grantsire. See Grand, and Sire.]
- jove n.
- The chief divinity of the ancient Romans; Jupiter. [L. Jupiter, gen. Jovis, OL. Jovis, nom. & gen. for Djovis; akin to E. Tuesday. See Tuesday, and cf. Jupiter.]
- entreat v. t.
- To treat, or conduct toward; to deal with; to use. [OE. entreten to treat, request, OF. entraiter to treat of; pref. en- (L. in) + traitier to treat. See Treat.]
- demure v. i.
- To look demurely.
- coquet v. t.
- To attempt to attract the notice, admiration, or love of; to treat with a show of tenderness or regard, with a view to deceive and disappoint.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Or, the Receipt to Form a Beauty. 1707 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, Or, the Receipt to Form a Beauty. 1707, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/or-the-receipt-to-form-a-beauty-1707.html, id L24488.
Form and metre
Or, the Receipt to Form a Beauty. 1707 is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 83% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 --AABBCCDDEE entreat · a · sceneA · sereneA · boyB · coyB · provideC · prideC · grainD · vainD · employ'dE · floydE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When Cupid did his grandsire Jove entreat | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| To form some Beauty by a new receipt, Jove sent, and found, far in a | 17 | ···/˘···˘/······· |
| country scene, | 3 | /˘· |
| Truth, innocence, good nature, look serene: | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘·˘/ |
| From which ingredients first the dext'rous boy | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Pick'd the demure, the awkward, and the coy. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| The Graces from the court did next provide | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Breeding, and wit, and air, and decent pride: | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| These Venus cleans'd from ev'ry spurious grain | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Of nice coquet, affected, pert, and vain. | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Jove mix'd up all, and the best clay employ'd; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Then call'd the happy composition FLOYD. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
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.