The Epitaph
Here, five feet deep, lies on his backA cobbler, starmonger, and quack;Who to the stars, in pure good will,Does to his best look upward still.Weep, all you customers that useHis pills, his almanacks, or shoes;And you that did your fortunes seek,Step to his grave but once a-week;This earth, which bears his body's print,You'll find has so much virtue in't,That I durst pawn my ears, 'twill tellWhate'er concerns you full as well,In physic, stolen goods, or love,As he himself could, when above.
Words in this poem
- starmonger n.
- A fortune teller; an astrologer; -- used in contempt. B.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Epitaph 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, The Epitaph, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/the-epitaph.html, id L24496.
Form and metre
The Epitaph is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG backA · quackA · willB · stillB · useC · shoesC · seekD · weekD · printE · in'tE · tellF · wellF · loveG · aboveG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Here, five feet deep, lies on his back | 8 | ········ |
| A cobbler, starmonger, and quack; | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| Who to the stars, in pure good will, | 8 | ········ |
| Does to his best look upward still. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Weep, all you customers that use | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| His pills, his almanacks, or shoes; | 8 | ········ |
| And you that did your fortunes seek, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Step to his grave but once a-week; | 8 | ········ |
| This earth, which bears his body's print, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| You'll find has so much virtue in't, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That I durst pawn my ears, 'twill tell | 8 | ········ |
| Whate'er concerns you full as well, | 9 | ˘˘/˘/···· |
| In physic, stolen goods, or love, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| As he himself could, when above. | 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.