To Stella on Her Birth-Day, 1721-2
While, Stella, to your lasting praiseThe Muse her annual tribute pays,While I assign myself a taskWhich you expect, but scorn to ask;If I perform this task with pain,Let me of partial fate complain;You every year the debt enlarge,I grow less equal to the charge:In you each virtue brighter shines,But my poetic vein declines;My harp will soon in vain be strung,And all your virtues left unsung.For none among the upstart raceOf poets dare assume my place;Your worth will be to them unknown,They must have Stellas of their own;And thus, my stock of wit decay'd,I dying leave the debt unpaid,Unless Delany, as my heir,Will answer for the whole arrear.
Words in this poem
- expect v. t.
- To wait for; to await. [L. expectatum, to look out for, await, expect; ex + out spectare to look at. See Spectacle.]
- arrear adv.
- To or in the rear; behind; backwards. [OE. arere, OF. arere, ariere, F. arrière, fr. L. ad + retro backward. See Rear.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Stella on Her Birth-Day, 1721-2 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, To Stella on Her Birth-Day, 1721-2, in Cadenus and Vanessa, and Other Poems (1710–1745), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13621, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems/to-stella-on-her-birth-day-1721-2.html, id L09237.
Form and metre
To Stella on Her Birth-Day, 1721-2 is 20 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 92%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 15% 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ praiseA · paysA · taskB · askB · painC · complainC · enlargeD · chargeD · shinesE · declinesE · strungF · unsungF · raceG · placeG · unknownH · ownH · decay'dI · unpaidI · heirJ · arrearJ
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 |
|---|---|---|
| While, Stella, to your lasting praise | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The Muse her annual tribute pays, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| While I assign myself a task | 8 | ··˘/·/·· |
| Which you expect, but scorn to ask; | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| If I perform this task with pain, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Let me of partial fate complain; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| You every year the debt enlarge, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| I grow less equal to the charge: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In you each virtue brighter shines, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| But my poetic vein declines; | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| My harp will soon in vain be strung, | 8 | ········ |
| And all your virtues left unsung. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| For none among the upstart race | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Of poets dare assume my place; | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Your worth will be to them unknown, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| They must have Stellas of their own; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And thus, my stock of wit decay'd, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| I dying leave the debt unpaid, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Unless Delany, as my heir, | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| Will answer for the whole arrear. | 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.