To Betty, the Grisette
Queen of wit and beauty, Betty,Never may the Muse forget ye,How thy face charms every shepherd,Spotted over like a leopard!And thy freckled neck, display'd,Envy breeds in every maid;Like a fly-blown cake of tallow,Or on parchment ink turn'd yellow;Or a tawny speckled pippin,Shrivell'd with a winter's keeping.And, thy beauty thus dispatch'd,Let me praise thy wit unmatch'd.Sets of phrases, cut and dry,Evermore thy tongue supply;And thy memory is loadedWith old scraps from plays exploded;Stock'd with repartees and jokes,Suited to all Christian folks:Shreds of wit, and senseless rhymes,Blunder'd out a thousand times;Nor wilt thou of gifts be sparing,Which can ne'er be worse for wearing.Picking wit among collegians,In the playhouse upper regions;Where, in the eighteen-penny gallery,Irish nymphs learn Irish raillery.But thy merit is thy failing,And thy raillery is railing.Thus with talents well enduedTo be scurrilous and rude;When you pertly raise your snout,Fleer and gibe, and laugh and flout;This among Hibernian assesFor sheer wit and humour passes.Thus indulgent Chloe, bit,Swears you have a world of wit.
Words in this poem
- betty n.
- Etym: [Supposed to be a cant word, from Betty, for Elizabeth, as such an instrument is also called Bess (i. e., Elizabeth) in the Canting Dictionary of 1725, and Jenny (i. e., Jane).]
- freckled a.
- Marked with freckles; spotted.
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
- folks n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- playhouse n.
- A building used for dramatic exhibitions; a theater. [AS. pleghus.]
- pertly adv.
- In a pert manner.
- fleer n.
- One who flees. Ld. Berners.
- hibernian a.
- Of or pertaining to Hibernia, now Ireland; Irish. [L. Hibernia, Ireland.]
- humour n.
- Moisture, especially, the moisture or fluid of animal bodies, as the chyle, lymph, etc.; as, the humors of the eye, etc. [OE. humour, OF. humor, umor, F. humeur, L. humor, umor, moisture, fluid, fr. humere, umere, to be moist. See Humid.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Betty, the Grisette 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, To Betty, the Grisette, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/to-betty-the-grisette.html, id L24597.
Form and metre
To Betty, the Grisette is 36 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 78% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 --AAAA----BBCCDDEEFFGGHH--IIJJKKLLMM betty · ye · shepherdA · leopardA · display'dA · maidA · tallow · yellow · pippin · keeping · dispatch'dB · unmatch'dB · dryC · supplyC · loadedD · explodedD · jokesE · folksE · rhymesF · timesF · sparingG · wearingG · collegiansH · regionsH · gallery · raillery · failingI · railingI · enduedJ · rudeJ · snoutK · floutK · assesL · passesL · bitM · witM
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Queen of wit and beauty, Betty, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Never may the Muse forget ye, | 8 | /˘···˘/· |
| How thy face charms every shepherd, | 9 | ····/˘˘/˘ |
| Spotted over like a leopard! | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| And thy freckled neck, display'd, | 8 | ··/˘˘·˘/ |
| Envy breeds in every maid; | 8 | /˘··/˘˘· |
| Like a fly-blown cake of tallow, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Or on parchment ink turn'd yellow; | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Or a tawny speckled pippin, | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Shrivell'd with a winter's keeping. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| And, thy beauty thus dispatch'd, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Let me praise thy wit unmatch'd. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Sets of phrases, cut and dry, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Evermore thy tongue supply; | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| And thy memory is loaded | 8 | ··/˘˘·/˘ |
| With old scraps from plays exploded; | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Stock'd with repartees and jokes, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Suited to all Christian folks: | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Shreds of wit, and senseless rhymes, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Blunder'd out a thousand times; | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Nor wilt thou of gifts be sparing, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Which can ne'er be worse for wearing. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Picking wit among collegians, | 8 | /˘···˘/˘ |
| In the playhouse upper regions; | 8 | ··/·/˘/˘ |
| Where, in the eighteen-penny gallery, | 9 | ···///˘/˘ |
| Irish nymphs learn Irish raillery. | 9 | /˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| But thy merit is thy failing, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And thy raillery is railing. | 8 | ··/˘˘·/˘ |
| Thus with talents well endued | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| To be scurrilous and rude; | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| When you pertly raise your snout, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Fleer and gibe, and laugh and flout; | 7 | ······· |
| This among Hibernian asses | 9 | ···˘/˘˘/˘ |
| For sheer wit and humour passes. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Thus indulgent Chloe, bit, | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘· |
| Swears you have a world of wit. | 7 | ······· |
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.