On the Church's Danger
Good Halifax and pious Wharton cry,The Church has vapours; there's no danger nigh.In those we love not, we no danger see,And were they hang'd, there would no danger be.But we must silent be, amidst our fears,And not believe our senses, but the Peers.So ravishers, that know no sense of shame,First stop her mouth, and then debauch the dame.
Words in this poem
- amidst prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- dame n.
- A mistress of a family, who is a lady; a womam in authority; especially, a lady. [F. dame, LL. domna, fr. L. domina mistress, lady, fem. of dominus master, ruler, lord; akin to domare to tame, subdue. See Tame, and cf. Dam mother, Dan, Danger]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Church's Danger 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 the Church's Danger, in Cadenus and Vanessa, and Other Poems (1710–1745), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13621, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems/on-the-church-s-danger.html, id L09315.
Form and metre
On the Church's Danger is 8 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 94%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 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 AABBCCDD cryA · nighA · seeB · beB · fearsC · peersC · shameD · dameD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Good Halifax and pious Wharton cry, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| The Church has vapours; there's no danger nigh. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| In those we love not, we no danger see, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And were they hang'd, there would no danger be. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But we must silent be, amidst our fears, | 10 | ···/˘·˘//· |
| And not believe our senses, but the Peers. | 10 | ··˘///˘··· |
| So ravishers, that know no sense of shame, | 10 | ·········· |
| First stop her mouth, and then debauch the dame. | 10 | ······˘/·· |
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.