A Riddle
I'm wealthy and poor,I'm empty and full,I'm humble and proud,I'm witty and dull.I'm foul and yet fair:I'm old, and yet young;I lie with Moll Kerr,And toast Mrs. Long.
Words in this poem
- witty a.
- Possessed of wit; knowing; wise; skillful; judicious; clever; cunning. [AS. witig, wittig. See Wit, n.]
- moll a.
- Minor; in the minor mode; as, A moll, that is, A minor. [G., fr. L. mollis soft, tender, elegiac. Cf. Molle.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Riddle 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 Riddle, in Poems, Volume II (1710–1745), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13621, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems/a-riddle.html, id L09276.
Form and metre
A Riddle is 8 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is anapaestic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.0 syllables.
See other poems in anapaestic dimeter.
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.
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 anapaestic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I'm wealthy and poor, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| I'm empty and full, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| I'm humble and proud, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| I'm witty and dull. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| I'm foul and yet fair: | 5 | ····· |
| I'm old, and yet young; | 5 | ····· |
| I lie with Moll Kerr, | 5 | ····· |
| And toast Mrs. Long. | 5 | ··/˘· |
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.