The Andrian: Act the Fifth: Scene VII

Terence · 1765

iambic pentameter · 14 lines · from The Comedies of Terence

CHAR. I come to see what Pamphilus is doing:And there he is!

PAM. And is this true?--yes, yes,I know 'tis true, because I wish it so.Therefore I think the life of Gods eternal,For that their joys are permanent: and now,My soul hath her content so absolute,That I too am immortal, if no illStep in betwixt me and this happiness.Oh, for a bosom-friend now to pour outMy ecstasies before him!CHAR. What's this rapture? (Listening.)

PAM. Oh, yonder's Davus: nobody more welcome:For he, I know, will join in transport with me.

Words in this poem

betwixt prep.
In the space which separates; between. [OE. betwix, bitwix, rarely bitwixt, AS. betweox, betweohs, betweoh, betwih; pref. be- by + a form fr. AS. twa two. See Between.]
nobody n.
No person; no one; not anybody. [No, a. + body.]

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

About this text

The Andrian: Act the Fifth: 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, The Andrian: Act the Fifth: Scene VII, in The Comedies of Terence (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22695, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/terence-comedies/the-andrian-act-the-fifth-scene-vii.html, id L25751.

Form and metre

The Andrian: Act the Fifth: Scene VII is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%).

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.

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. 2 --A--A---- yes · so · eternalA · now · absolute · illA · happiness · out · him · listening
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
CHAR. I come to see what Pamphilus is doing:11··········/
And there he is!4····
PAM. And is this true?--yes, yes,7·······
I know 'tis true, because I wish it so.10··········
Therefore I think the life of Gods eternal,11········˘/˘
For that their joys are permanent: and now,10·····/˘˘··
My soul hath her content so absolute,10····˘/·/˘·
That I too am immortal, if no ill10····˘/˘···
Step in betwixt me and this happiness.10··˘/···/˘˘
Oh, for a bosom-friend now to pour out10···/˘·····
My ecstasies before him!7·/˘˘···
CHAR. What's this rapture? (Listening.)8···/˘/˘˘
PAM. Oh, yonder's Davus: nobody more welcome:12··/˘··/···/˘
For he, I know, will join in transport with me.11·······˘/··

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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