To Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough
Mordanto fills the trump of fame,The Christian world his deeds proclaim,And prints are crowded with his name.
In journeys he outrides the post,Sits up till midnight with his host,Talks politics, and gives the toast.
Knows every prince in Europe's face,Flies like a squib from place to place,And travels not, but runs a race.
From Paris gazette à-la-main,This day arriv'd, without his train,Mordanto in a week from Spain.
A messenger comes all a-reekMordanto at Madrid to seek;He left the town above a week.
Next day the post-boy winds his horn,And rides through Dover in the morn:Mordanto's landed from Leghorn.
Mordanto gallops on alone,The roads are with his followers strewn,This breaks a girth, and that a bone;
His body active as his mind,Returning sound in limb and wind,Except some leather lost behind.
A skeleton in outward figure,His meagre corps, though full of vigour,Would halt behind him, were it bigger.
So wonderful his expedition,When you have not the least suspicion,He's with you like an apparition.
Shines in all climates like a star;In senates bold, and fierce in war;A land commander, and a tar:
Heroic actions early bred in,Ne'er to be match'd in modern reading,But by his namesake, Charles of Sweden.
"--he whose lightning pierc'd th'Iberian lines,Now forms my quincunx, and now ranks my vines,Or tames the genius of the stubborn plainAlmost as quickly as he conquer'd Spain."POPE, Imitations of Horace, ii, Sat. 1.
Lord Peterborough seems to have been equally famous for his skill incookery. See note to above Satire, Pope's Works, edit. Elwin and
"He left the name at which the world grew pale,To point a moral or adorn a tale."
Words in this poem
- squib n.
- A little pipe, or hollow cylinder of paper, filled with powder or combustible matter, to be thrown into the air while burning, so as to burst there with a crack. [OE. squippen, swippen, to move swiftky, Icel. svipa to swoop, flash, dart, whip; akin to AS. swipian to whip, and E. swift, a. See Swift, a.]
- gazette n.
- A newspaper; a printed sheet published periodically; esp., the official journal published by the British government, and containing legal and state notices. [F. gazette, It. gazzetta, perh. from gazetta a Venetian coin (see Gazet), said to have been the price of the first newspaper published at Venice; or perh. dim. ]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- leghorn n.
- A straw plaiting used for bonnets and hats, made from the straw of a particular kind of wheat, grown for the purpose in Tuscany, Italy; -- so called from Leghorn, the place of exportation.
- meagre a.
- Destitue of, or having little, flesh; lean. [OE. merge, F. maigre, L. macer; akin to D. & G. mager, Icel. magr, and prob. to Gr. Emaciate, Maigre.]
- corps n.
- The human body, whether living or dead. See Corpse, 1. [F., fr. L. corpus body. See Corpse.]
- vigour v. t.
- To invigorate. Feltham.
- bigger a.
- , compar. of Big.
- namesake n.
- One that has the same name as another; especially, one called after, or named out of regard to, another. [For name's sake; i. e., one named for the sake of another's name.]
- edit v. t.
- To superintend the publication of; to revise and prepare for publication; to select, correct, arrange, etc., the matter of, for publication; as, to edit a newspaper. [F. éditer, or L. editus, p. p. of edere to give out, put forth, publish; e out + dare to give. See Date a point of time.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough 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 Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/to-charles-mordaunt-earl-of-peterborough.html, id L24486.
Form and metre
To Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough is 45 lines in 15 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 62% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 AAA fameA · proclaimA · nameA
- 2 AAA postA · hostA · toastA
- 3 AAA faceA · placeA · raceA
- 4 AAA mainA · trainA · spainA
- 5 AAA reekA · seekA · weekA
- 6 AAA hornA · mornA · leghornA
- 7 AAA aloneA · strewnA · boneA
- 8 AAA mindA · windA · behindA
- 9 AAA figureA · vigourA · biggerA
- 10 AAA expeditionA · suspicionA · apparitionA
- 11 AAA starA · warA · tarA
- 13 AABB- linesA · vinesA · plainB · spainB · —
- 15 AA paleA · taleA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mordanto fills the trump of fame, | 8 | ········ |
| The Christian world his deeds proclaim, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| And prints are crowded with his name. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In journeys he outrides the post, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Sits up till midnight with his host, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Talks politics, and gives the toast. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Knows every prince in Europe's face, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Flies like a squib from place to place, | 8 | ········ |
| And travels not, but runs a race. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| From Paris gazette à-la-main, | 7 | ·/˘˘/·· |
| This day arriv'd, without his train, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Mordanto in a week from Spain. | 8 | ········ |
| A messenger comes all a-reek | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Mordanto at Madrid to seek; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| He left the town above a week. | 8 | ········ |
| Next day the post-boy winds his horn, | 8 | ········ |
| And rides through Dover in the morn: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Mordanto's landed from Leghorn. | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| Mordanto gallops on alone, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| The roads are with his followers strewn, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| This breaks a girth, and that a bone; | 8 | ········ |
| His body active as his mind, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Returning sound in limb and wind, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Except some leather lost behind. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A skeleton in outward figure, | 9 | ·/˘˘·/˘/˘ |
| His meagre corps, though full of vigour, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Would halt behind him, were it bigger. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| So wonderful his expedition, | 9 | ·/˘˘··˘/˘ |
| When you have not the least suspicion, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| He's with you like an apparition. | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Shines in all climates like a star; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In senates bold, and fierce in war; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A land commander, and a tar: | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Heroic actions early bred in, | 9 | ˘/˘/˘/˘·· |
| Ne'er to be match'd in modern reading, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| But by his namesake, Charles of Sweden. | 9 | ···/···/˘ |
| "--he whose lightning pierc'd th'Iberian lines, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Now forms my quincunx, and now ranks my vines, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Or tames the genius of the stubborn plain | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Almost as quickly as he conquer'd Spain." | 10 | /··/˘··/˘· |
| POPE, Imitations of Horace, ii, Sat. 1. | 10 | ··˘/˘·/˘·· |
| Lord Peterborough seems to have been equally famous for his skill in | 15 | ·/˘····/˘/˘···· |
| cookery. See note to above Satire, Pope's Works, edit. Elwin and | 17 | /˘˘·····/˘··/˘/˘· |
| "He left the name at which the world grew pale, | 10 | ·········· |
| To point a moral or adorn a tale." | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
Notes from the edition 1
The notes to the Poems of Jonathan Swift, Volume I, ed. W. E. Browning (Project Gutenberg #14353, 1910).
- Stanza 12, line 3 See Voltaire's "History of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden." "He left the name at which the world grew pale, To point a moral or adorn a tale." JOHNSON, Vanity of Human Wishes.
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