A Portrait from the Life
Come sit by my side, while this picture I draw:In chattering a magpie, in pride a jackdaw;A temper the devil himself could not bridle;Impertinent mixture of busy and idle;As rude as a bear, no mule half so crabbed;She swills like a sow, and she breeds like a rabbit;A housewife in bed, at table a slattern;For all an example, for no one a pattern.Now tell me, friend Thomas, Ford, Grattan, and Merry Dan,Has this any likeness to good Madam Sheridan?
Words in this poem
- chattering n.
- The act or habit of talking idly or rapidly, or of making inarticulate sounds; the sounds so made; noise made by the collision of the teeth; chatter.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Portrait from the Life is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #13621; 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, A Portrait from the Life, in Cadenus and Vanessa, and Other Poems (1710–1745), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13621, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems/a-portrait-from-the-life.html, id L09420.
Form and metre
A Portrait from the Life is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 60% of the lines. 84% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.4 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 --AA--BBBB draw · jackdaw · bridleA · idleA · crabbed · rabbit · slatternB · patternB · danB · sheridanB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Come sit by my side, while this picture I draw: | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| In chattering a magpie, in pride a jackdaw; | 12 | ·/˘˘·/····/˘ |
| A temper the devil himself could not bridle; | 12 | ·/˘·/˘˘/··/˘ |
| Impertinent mixture of busy and idle; | 12 | ˘/˘˘/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| As rude as a bear, no mule half so crabbed; | 11 | ··········˘ |
| She swills like a sow, and she breeds like a rabbit; | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| A housewife in bed, at table a slattern; | 11 | ·/····/˘·/˘ |
| For all an example, for no one a pattern. | 12 | ···˘/˘····/˘ |
| Now tell me, friend Thomas, Ford, Grattan, and Merry Dan, | 13 | ····/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| Has this any likeness to good Madam Sheridan? | 13 | ··/˘/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
Notes from the edition 4
The notes to the Poems of Jonathan Swift, Volume II (Project Gutenberg #13621).
- Line 9 Dr. Thos. Sheridan.
- Line 9 Chas. Ford, of Woodpark, Esq.
- Line 9 Rev. John Grattan.
- Line 9 Rev. Daniel Jackson.
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