To Janus, on New Year's Day, 1726
Two-faced Janus, god of Time!Be my Phoebus while I rhyme;To oblige your crony Swift,Bring our dame a new year's gift;She has got but half a face;Janus, since thou hast a brace,To my lady once be kind;Give her half thy face behind.God of Time, if you be wise,Look not with your future eyes;What imports thy forward sight?Well, if you could lose it quite.Can you take delight in viewingThis poor Isle's approaching ruin,When thy retrospection vastSees the glorious ages past?Happy nation, were we blind,Or had only eyes behind!Drown your morals, madam cries,I'll have none but forward eyes;Prudes decay'd about may tack,Strain their necks with looking back.Give me time when coming on;Who regards him when he's gone?By the Dean though gravely told,New-years help to make me old;Yet I find a new-year's laceBurnishes an old-year's face.Give me velvet and quadrille,I'll have youth and beauty still.
Unde homines operum primos vitaeque labores
Words in this poem
- phoebus n.
- Apollo; the sun god.
- oblige v. t.
- To attach, as by a bond. [OF. obligier, F.obliger, L. obligare; ob (see Ob-) + ligare to bind. See Ligament, and cf. Obligate.]
- dame n.
- A mistress of a family, who is a lady; a womam in authority; especially, a lady. [F. dame, LL. domna, fr. L. domina mistress, lady, fem. of dominus master, ruler, lord; akin to domare to tame, subdue. See Tame, and cf. Dam mother, Dan, Danger]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- retrospection n.
- The act, or the faculty, of looking back on things past.
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- gravely adv.
- In a grave manner.
- quadrille n.
- A dance having five figures, in common time, four couples of dancers being in each set. [F. quadrille, n. fem., fr. Sp. cuadrilla meeting of four or more persons or It. quadriglia a band of soldiers, a sort of dance; dim. fr. L. quadra a square, fr.]
- unde a.
- Waving or wavy; -- applied to ordinaries, or division lines. [F. ondé.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Janus, on New Year's Day, 1726 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 Janus, on New Year's Day, 1726, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/to-janus-on-new-year-s-day-1726.html, id L24592.
Form and metre
To Janus, on New Year's Day, 1726 is 31 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 90% 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 AABBCCDDEEFF--GGDDEEHHIIJJCCKK timeA · rhymeA · swiftB · giftB · faceC · braceC · kindD · behindD · wiseE · eyesE · sightF · quiteF · viewing · ruin · vastG · pastG · blindD · behindD · criesE · eyesE · tackH · backH · onI · goneI · toldJ · oldJ · laceC · faceC · quadrilleK · stillK
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Two-faced Janus, god of Time! | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Be my Phoebus while I rhyme; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| To oblige your crony Swift, | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Bring our dame a new year's gift; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| She has got but half a face; | 7 | ······· |
| Janus, since thou hast a brace, | 7 | /˘····· |
| To my lady once be kind; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Give her half thy face behind. | 7 | ······· |
| God of Time, if you be wise, | 7 | ······· |
| Look not with your future eyes; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| What imports thy forward sight? | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Well, if you could lose it quite. | 7 | ······· |
| Can you take delight in viewing | 8 | ···˘/·/˘ |
| This poor Isle's approaching ruin, | 8 | ···˘/˘/˘ |
| When thy retrospection vast | 7 | ······· |
| Sees the glorious ages past? | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| Happy nation, were we blind, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Or had only eyes behind! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Drown your morals, madam cries, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| I'll have none but forward eyes; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Prudes decay'd about may tack, | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Strain their necks with looking back. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Give me time when coming on; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Who regards him when he's gone? | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| By the Dean though gravely told, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| New-years help to make me old; | 7 | ······· |
| Yet I find a new-year's lace | 7 | ······· |
| Burnishes an old-year's face. | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| Give me velvet and quadrille, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| I'll have youth and beauty still. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Unde homines operum primos vitaeque labores | 13 | /˘·····/···/˘ |
Notes from the edition 2
The notes to the Poems of Jonathan Swift, Volume I, ed. W. E. Browning (Project Gutenberg #14353, 1910).
- Stanza 1, line 1 "Matutine pater, seu Jane libentius audis Unde homines operum primos vitaeque labores Instituunt."--HOR., Sat., ii, vi, 20.
- Stanza 1, line 14 Ireland.--H.
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