Stella's Birth-Day March 13, 1718-19
Stella this day is thirty-four,(We shan't dispute a year or more:)However, Stella, be not troubled,Although thy size and years are doubledSince first I saw thee at sixteen,The brightest virgin on the green;So little is thy form declined;Made up so largely in thy mind.O, would it please the gods to splitThy beauty, size, and years, and wit!No age could furnish out a pairOf nymphs so graceful, wise, and fair;With half the lustre of your eyes,With half your wit, your years, and size.And then, before it grew too late,How should I beg of gentle fate,(That either nymph might have her swain,)To split my worship too in twain.
Words in this poem
- lustre n.
- A period of five years; a lustrum. [L. lustrum: cf. F. lustre.]
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Stella's Birth-Day March 13, 1718-19 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, Stella's Birth-Day March 13, 1718-19, in Poems, Volume II (1710–1745), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13621, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems/stella-s-birth-day-march-13-1718-19.html, id L09232.
Form and metre
Stella's Birth-Day March 13, 1718-19 is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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.
- 1 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHII fourA · moreA · troubledB · doubledB · sixteenC · greenC · declinedD · mindD · splitE · witE · pairF · fairF · eyesG · sizeG · lateH · fateH · swainI · twainI
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Stella this day is thirty-four, | 8 | /˘···/·· |
| (We shan't dispute a year or more:) | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| However, Stella, be not troubled, | 9 | ·/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Although thy size and years are doubled | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Since first I saw thee at sixteen, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The brightest virgin on the green; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| So little is thy form declined; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Made up so largely in thy mind. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| O, would it please the gods to split | 8 | ········ |
| Thy beauty, size, and years, and wit! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| No age could furnish out a pair | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of nymphs so graceful, wise, and fair; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With half the lustre of your eyes, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With half your wit, your years, and size. | 8 | ········ |
| And then, before it grew too late, | 8 | ········ |
| How should I beg of gentle fate, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| (That either nymph might have her swain,) | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To split my worship too in twain. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
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.