The Step-Mother: Act the Third: Scene VII
He's gone.What shall I do? Alas! I scarcely knowHow to conceal, as Myrrhina desir'd,Her daughter's labor. Yet I pity her;And what I can, I am resolv'd to do,Consistent with my duty: for my parentsMust be obey'd before my love.--But see!My father and Phidippus come this way.How I shall act, Heav'n knows.
HarperAnd what I can, I am resolv'd to do,Consistent with my duty: for my parentsColman 1768And what I can, consistent with my duty,I am resolv'd to do: and yet my parents
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- harper n.
- A player on the harp; a minstrel. [AS. hearpere.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Step-Mother: 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 Step-Mother: 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-step-mother-act-the-third-scene-vii.html, id L25868.
Form and metre
The Step-Mother: Act the Third: Scene VII is 15 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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.
- 2 --A--A harper · do · parentsA · — · duty · parentsA
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.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| He's gone. | 2 | ·· |
| What shall I do? Alas! I scarcely know | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| How to conceal, as Myrrhina desir'd, | 11 | ··˘/····˘/˘ |
| Her daughter's labor. Yet I pity her; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| And what I can, I am resolv'd to do, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Consistent with my duty: for my parents | 11 | ˘/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Must be obey'd before my love.--But see! | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| My father and Phidippus come this way. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| How I shall act, Heav'n knows. | 6 | ······ |
| Harper | 2 | /˘ |
| And what I can, I am resolv'd to do, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Consistent with my duty: for my parents | 11 | ˘/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Colman 1768 | 2 | /˘ |
| And what I can, consistent with my duty, | 11 | ····˘/˘··/˘ |
| I am resolv'd to do: and yet my parents | 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.