An Epigram Occasioned by the Above Inscription
Which gave the Drapier birth two realms contend;And each asserts her poet, patriot, friend:Her mitre jealous Britain may deny;That loss Iërne's laurel shall supply;Through life's low vale, she, grateful, gave him bread;Her vocal stones shall vindicate him dead.
Words in this poem
- mitre n.
- A covering for the head, worn on solemn occasions by church dignitaries. It has been made in many forms, the present form being a lofty cap with two points or peaks. Fairholt.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Epigram Occasioned by the Above Inscription 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, An Epigram Occasioned by the Above Inscription, in Cadenus and Vanessa, and Other Poems (1710–1745), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13621, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems/an-epigram-occasioned-by-the-above-inscription.html, id L09453.
Form and metre
An Epigram Occasioned by the Above Inscription is 6 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.5 syllables.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCC contendA · friendA · denyB · supplyB · breadC · deadC
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Which gave the Drapier birth two realms contend; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And each asserts her poet, patriot, friend: | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Her mitre jealous Britain may deny; | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| That loss Iërne's laurel shall supply; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Through life's low vale, she, grateful, gave him bread; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Her vocal stones shall vindicate him dead. | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·· |
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.