On the Same
"Jam jam residunt cruribus asperaePelles, et album mutor in alitemSuperne, nascunturque levesPer digitos humerosque plumae."
Talis erat quondam Tithoni splendida conjux,Effulsit misero sic Dea juncta viro;Hunc tandem imminuit sensim longaeva senectus,Te vero extinxit, Carole, prima dies.
Words in this poem
- quondam a.
- Having been formerly; former; sometime. [L., formerly.]
- tandem adv.
- One after another; -- said especially of horses harnessed and driven one before another, instead of abreast. [L. tandem at length (of time only), punningly taken as meaning, lengthwise.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Same 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 Same, in Poems, Volume II (1710–1745), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13621, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems/on-the-same-3.html, id L18549.
Form and metre
On the Same is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.6 syllables. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 A--A asperaeA · alitem · leves · plumaeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| "Jam jam residunt cruribus asperae | 10 | ·········· |
| Pelles, et album mutor in alitem | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Superne, nascunturque leves | 6 | ······ |
| Per digitos humerosque plumae." | 8 | ········ |
| Talis erat quondam Tithoni splendida conjux, | 14 | ····/˘········ |
| Effulsit misero sic Dea juncta viro; | 12 | ············ |
| Hunc tandem imminuit sensim longaeva senectus, | 14 | ·/˘··········· |
| Te vero extinxit, Carole, prima dies. | 11 | ·/˘···/˘/˘· |
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.