The Andrian: Act the Third: Scene VII

Terence · 1765

iambic pentameter · 8 lines · from The Comedies of Terence

Lost and undone! To prison with me straight!No prayer, no plea: for I have ruin'd all!Deceiv'd the old man, hamper'd PamphilusWith marriage; marriage, brought about to-dayBy my sole means; beyond the hopes of one;Against the other's will.----Oh, cunning fool!Had I been quiet, all had yet been well.But see, he's coming. Would my neck were broken! (Retires.)

Words in this poem

undone a.
Not done or performed; neglected. [Pref. un- not + done.]

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

About this text

The Andrian: Act the Third: 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 Third: 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-third-scene-vii.html, id L25735.

Form and metre

The Andrian: Act the Third: Scene VII is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).

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
Lost and undone! To prison with me straight!10··˘/·/˘···
No prayer, no plea: for I have ruin'd all!10·······/˘·
Deceiv'd the old man, hamper'd Pamphilus10˘/···/˘···
With marriage; marriage, brought about to-day10·/˘/˘·····
By my sole means; beyond the hopes of one;10··········
Against the other's will.----Oh, cunning fool!10···/˘··/˘·
Had I been quiet, all had yet been well.10···/˘·····
But see, he's coming. Would my neck were broken! (Retires.)13···/˘····/˘˘/

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