The Beau's Reply to the Five Ladies' Answer
Why, how now, dapper black!I smell your gown and cassock,As strong upon your back,As Tisdall smells of a sock.
To write such scurvy stuff!Fine ladies never do't;I know you well enough,And eke your cloven foot.
Fine ladies, when they write,Nor scold, nor keep a splutter:Their verses give delight,As soft and sweet as butter.
But Satan never sawSuch haggard lines as these:They stick athwart my maw,As bad as Suffolk cheese.
Words in this poem
- dapper a.
- Little and active; spruce; trim; smart; neat in dress or appearance; lively. [OE. daper; prob. fr. D. dapper brave, valiant; akin to G. tapfer brave, OHG. taphar heavy, weighty, OSlav. dobrû good, Russ. dobrui. Cf. Deft.]
- cassock n.
- A long outer garment formerly worn by men and women, as well as by soldiers as part of their uniform. [F. casaque, fr. It. casacca, perh. fr. L. casa cottage, in It., house; or of Slavic origin.]
- sock n.
- A plowshare. Edin. Encyc. [F. soc, LL. soccus, perhaps of Celtic origin.]
- splutter v. i.
- To speak hastily and confusedly; to sputter. [Prov. E. splutter, eqivalent to sputter. Cf. Sputter.]
- haggard a.
- Wild or intractable; disposed to break away from duty; untamed; as, a haggard or refractory hawk. Shak [F. hagard; of German origin, and prop. meaning, of the hegde or woods, wild, untamed. See Hedge, 1st Haw, and -ard.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Beau's Reply to the Five Ladies' Answer 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, The Beau's Reply to the Five Ladies' Answer, in Cadenus and Vanessa, and Other Poems (1710–1745), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13621, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems/the-beau-s-reply-to-the-five-ladies-answer.html, id L25702.
Form and metre
The Beau's Reply to the Five Ladies' Answer is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 98%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 23 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 AAAA blackA · cassockA · backA · sockA
- 2 A-A- stuffA · do't · enoughA · foot
- 3 ABAB writeA · splutterB · delightA · butterB
- 4 ABAB sawA · theseB · mawA · cheeseB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Why, how now, dapper black! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I smell your gown and cassock, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| As strong upon your back, | 6 | ······ |
| As Tisdall smells of a sock. | 7 | ······· |
| To write such scurvy stuff! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Fine ladies never do't; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| I know you well enough, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And eke your cloven foot. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Fine ladies, when they write, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Nor scold, nor keep a splutter: | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Their verses give delight, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| As soft and sweet as butter. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| But Satan never saw | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Such haggard lines as these: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| They stick athwart my maw, | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| As bad as Suffolk cheese. | 6 | ···/˘· |
Notes from the edition 1
The notes to the Poems of Jonathan Swift, Volume II (Project Gutenberg #13621).
- Stanza 1, line 4 Dr. William Tisdall, a clergyman in the north of Ireland, who had paid his addresses to Mrs. Johnson. He is several times mentioned in the Journal to Stella, and is not to be confused with another Tisdall or Tisdell, whom Swift knew in London, also mentioned in the Journal.--W. E. B.
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