Phormio: Act the First: Scene VII

Terence · 1765

iambic pentameter · 4 lines · from The Comedies of Terence

I'll home, and thank the Gods for my return:Thence to the Forum, and convene some friends,Who may be present at this interview,That Phormio may not take me unprepar'd. (Exit.

Words in this poem

thank n.
A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
forum n.
A market place or public place in Rome, where causes were judicially tried, and orations delivered to the people. [L.; akin to foris, foras, out of doors. See Foreign.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Phormio: Act the First: Scene VII is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Comedies of Terence, Project Gutenberg ebook #22695; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Terence, Phormio: Act the First: Scene VII, in The Comedies of Terence (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22695, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/terence-comedies/phormio-act-the-first-scene-vii.html, id L25892.

Form and metre

Phormio: Act the First: Scene VII is 4 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.

See other poems in iambic pentameter.

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.

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 pentameter. How this is done.

LineSyl.Stress
I'll home, and thank the Gods for my return:10········˘/
Thence to the Forum, and convene some friends,10···/˘·˘/··
Who may be present at this interview,10···/˘··/˘·
That Phormio may not take me unprepar'd. (Exit.12········˘//˘

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.

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