Sheridan's Submission by the Dean
Miserae cognosce prooemia rixae,Si rixa est ubi tu pulsas, ego vapulo tantum.
Poor Sherry, inglorious,To Dan the victorious,Presents, as 'tis fitting,Petition and greeting.
To you, victorious and brave,Your now subdued and suppliant slaveMost humbly sues for pardon;Who when I fought still cut me down,And when I vanquish'd, fled the townPursued and laid me hard on.
Now lowly crouch'd, I cry peccavi,And prostrate, supplicate pour ma vie;Your mercy I rely on;For you my conqueror and my king,In pardoning, as in punishing,Will show yourself a lion.
Alas! sir, I had no design,But was unwarily drawn in;For spite I ne'er had any;'Twas the damn'd squire with the hard name;The de'il too that owed me a shame,The devil and Delany;
They tempted me t' attack your highness,And then, with wonted wile and slyness,They left me in the lurch:Unhappy wretch! for now, I ween,I've nothing left to vent my spleenBut ferula and birch:
And they, alas! yield small relief,Seem rather to renew my grief,My wounds bleed all anew:For every stroke goes to my heartAnd at each lash I feel the smartOf lash laid on by you.
Words in this poem
- inglorious a.
- Not glorious; not bringing honor or glory; not accompanied with fame, honor, or celebrity; obscure; humble; as, an inglorious life of ease. [L. inglorious; pref. in- not + gloria glory, fame: cf. F. inglorieux. See Glory.]
- suppliant a.
- Asking earnestly and submissively; entreating; beseeching; supplicating. [F., p.pr. of supplier to entreat, L. supplicare. See Supplicate, and cf. Supplicant.]
- humbly adv.
- With humility; lowly.
- peccavi
- I have sinned; -- used colloquially to express confession or acknowledgment of an offense. Aubrey. [L.]
- unwarily adv.
- In an unwary manner.
- highness n.
- The state of being high; elevation; loftiness. [AS. heáhnes.]
- wonted a.
- Accustomed; customary; usual.
- wile n.
- A trick or stratagem practiced for insnaring or deception; a sly, insidious; artifice; a beguilement; an allurement. [OE. wile, AS. wil; cf. Icel. v, væl. Cf. Guile.]
- slyness n.
- The quality or state of being sly.
- lurch v. t.
- To leave in the lurch; to cheat.
- ween v. i.
- To think; to imagine; to fancy. [OE. wenen, AS. w, fr. w hope, expectation, opinion; akin to D. waan, OFries. w, OS. & OHG. wan, G. wahn delusion, Icel. van hope, expectation, Goth. w, and D. w]
- ferula n.
- A ferule. Beau. & Fl. [L. ferula giant fennel (its stalks were used in punishing schoolboys), rod, whip, fr. ferire to strike; akin to OHG. berjan, Icel. berja. Cf. Ferule.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sheridan's Submission by the Dean 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, Sheridan's Submission by the Dean, in Poems, Volume II (1710–1745), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13621, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems/sheridan-s-submission-by-the-dean.html, id L09413.
Form and metre
Sheridan's Submission by the Dean is 36 lines in 7 stanzas. The commonest rhyme scheme is AABCCB, in 2 of the 7 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 12 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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.
- 2 AA-- ingloriousA · victoriousA · fitting · greeting
- 3 AABBBB braveA · slaveA · pardonB · downB · townB · onB
- 4 --ABBA peccavi · vie · onA · kingB · punishingB · lionA
- 5 AA-BB- designA · inA · any · nameB · shameB · delany
- 6 AABCCB highnessA · slynessA · lurchB · weenC · spleenC · birchB
- 7 AABCCB reliefA · griefA · anewB · heartC · smartC · youB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Miserae cognosce prooemia rixae, | 7 | ······· |
| Si rixa est ubi tu pulsas, ego vapulo tantum. | 17 | ···˘/·····/˘····· |
| Poor Sherry, inglorious, | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘˘ |
| To Dan the victorious, | 7 | ···˘/˘˘ |
| Presents, as 'tis fitting, | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Petition and greeting. | 6 | ˘/˘·/˘ |
| To you, victorious and brave, | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| Your now subdued and suppliant slave | 9 | ··˘/·/˘˘· |
| Most humbly sues for pardon; | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Who when I fought still cut me down, | 8 | ········ |
| And when I vanquish'd, fled the town | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Pursued and laid me hard on. | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Now lowly crouch'd, I cry peccavi, | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| And prostrate, supplicate pour ma vie; | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘··· |
| Your mercy I rely on; | 7 | ·/˘·˘/· |
| For you my conqueror and my king, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In pardoning, as in punishing, | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘˘ |
| Will show yourself a lion. | 7 | ··˘/·/˘ |
| Alas! sir, I had no design, | 8 | ˘/····˘/ |
| But was unwarily drawn in; | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| For spite I ne'er had any; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| 'Twas the damn'd squire with the hard name; | 8 | ········ |
| The de'il too that owed me a shame, | 8 | ········ |
| The devil and Delany; | 7 | ·/˘·/˘˘ |
| They tempted me t' attack your highness, | 10 | ·/˘··˘/·/˘ |
| And then, with wonted wile and slyness, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| They left me in the lurch: | 6 | ······ |
| Unhappy wretch! for now, I ween, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| I've nothing left to vent my spleen | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But ferula and birch: | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| And they, alas! yield small relief, | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| Seem rather to renew my grief, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| My wounds bleed all anew: | 6 | ····˘/ |
| For every stroke goes to my heart | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And at each lash I feel the smart | 8 | ········ |
| Of lash laid on by you. | 6 | ······ |
Notes from the edition 1
The notes to the Poems of Jonathan Swift, Volume II (Project Gutenberg #13621).
- Stanza 1, line 2 Juvenalis, Sat. iii, 288.--W. E. B.
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.