On a Cannon
Begotten, and born, and dying with noise,The terror of women, and pleasure of boys,Like the fiction of poets concerning the wind,I'm chiefly unruly when strongest confined.For silver and gold I don't trouble my head,But all I delight in is pieces of lead;Except when I trade with a ship or a town,Why then I make pieces of iron go down.One property more I would have you remark,No lady was ever more fond of a spark;The moment I get one, my soul's all a-fire,And I roar out my joy, and in transport expire.
About this text
On a Cannon 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, On a Cannon, in Cadenus and Vanessa, and Other Poems (1710–1745), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13621, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems/on-a-cannon.html, id L09269.
Form and metre
On a Cannon is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 75% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.8 syllables.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in anapaestic 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 noiseA · boysA · windB · confinedB · headC · leadC · townD · downD · remarkE · sparkE · fireF · expireF
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Begotten, and born, and dying with noise, | 10 | ˘/˘···/˘·· |
| The terror of women, and pleasure of boys, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| Like the fiction of poets concerning the wind, | 12 | ··/˘·/˘˘/˘·· |
| I'm chiefly unruly when strongest confined. | 11 | ·/˘˘/˘·/˘˘/ |
| For silver and gold I don't trouble my head, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| But all I delight in is pieces of lead; | 11 | ···˘/··/˘·· |
| Except when I trade with a ship or a town, | 11 | ··········· |
| Why then I make pieces of iron go down. | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| One property more I would have you remark, | 11 | ·/˘˘·····˘/ |
| No lady was ever more fond of a spark; | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| The moment I get one, my soul's all a-fire, | 12 | ·/˘·······/˘ |
| And I roar out my joy, and in transport expire. | 12 | ········˘/˘/ |
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.