Verses Occasioned by the Foregoing Presents
A paper book is sent by Boyle,Too neatly gilt for me to soil.Delany sends a silver standish,When I no more a pen can brandish.Let both around my tomb be placed:As trophies of a Muse deceased;And let the friendly lines they writ,In praise of long-departed wit,Be graved on either side in columns,More to my praise than all my volumes,To burst with envy, spite, and rage,The Vandals of the present age.
Words in this poem
- standish n.
- A stand, or case, for pen and ink. [Stand + dish.]
- brandish v. t.
- To move or wave, as a weapon; to raise and move in various directions; to shake or flourish. [OE. braundisen, F. brandir, fr. brand a sword, fr. OHG. brant brand. See Brand, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Verses Occasioned by the Foregoing Presents 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, Verses Occasioned by the Foregoing Presents, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/verses-occasioned-by-the-foregoing-presents.html, id L25623.
Form and metre
Verses Occasioned by the Foregoing Presents is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
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 AABB--CC--DD boyleA · soilA · standishB · brandishB · placed · deceased · writC · witC · columns · volumes · rageD · ageD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A paper book is sent by Boyle, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Too neatly gilt for me to soil. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Delany sends a silver standish, | 9 | /˘˘··/˘/˘ |
| When I no more a pen can brandish. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Let both around my tomb be placed: | 8 | ········ |
| As trophies of a Muse deceased; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| And let the friendly lines they writ, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In praise of long-departed wit, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Be graved on either side in columns, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| More to my praise than all my volumes, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| To burst with envy, spite, and rage, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The Vandals of the present age. | 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.