An Epic Poem, in Twenty Books I
A thousand years ago, or more,A city filled with burghers stout,And girt with ramparts round about,Stood on the rocky Dnieper shore.In armor bright, by day and night,The sentries they paced to and fro.Well guarded and walled was this town, and calledBy different names, I'd have you to know;For if you looks in the g'ography books,In those dictionaries the name it varies,And they write it off Kieff or Kioff, Kiova or Kiow.
Words in this poem
- girt v. t.
- To gird; to encircle; to invest by means of a girdle; to measure the girth of; as, to girt a tree. [From Girt, n., cf. Girth, v.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Epic Poem, in Twenty Books I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Ballads, Project Gutenberg ebook #2732; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Makepeace Thackeray, An Epic Poem, in Twenty Books I, in Ballads (1849–1855), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/thackeray-ballads/an-epic-poem-in-twenty-books-i.html, id L10389.
Form and metre
An Epic Poem, in Twenty Books I is 11 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 9% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABBA-C-C--- moreA · stoutB · aboutB · shoreA · night · froC · called · knowC · books · varies · kiow
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A thousand years ago, or more, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| A city filled with burghers stout, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And girt with ramparts round about, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Stood on the rocky Dnieper shore. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In armor bright, by day and night, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The sentries they paced to and fro. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Well guarded and walled was this town, and called | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| By different names, I'd have you to know; | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| For if you looks in the g'ography books, | 10 | ·········· |
| In those dictionaries the name it varies, | 11 | ··/˘·˘···/˘ |
| And they write it off Kieff or Kioff, Kiova or Kiow. | 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.