Dear Jack
Dear Jack, this white mug that with Guinness I fill,And drink to the health of sweet Nan of the Hill,Was once Tommy Tosspot's, as jovial a sotAs e'er drew a spigot, or drain'd a full pot--In drinking all round 'twas his joy to surpass,And with all merry tipplers he swigg'd off his glass.
One morning in summer, while seated so snug,In the porch of his garden, discussing his jug,Stern Death, on a sudden, to Tom did appear,And said, "Honest Thomas, come take your last bier."We kneaded his clay in the shape of this can,From which let us drink to the health of my Nan.
Words in this poem
- tommy n.
- Bread, -- generally a penny roll; the supply of food carried by workmen as their daily allowance.
- jovial a.
- Of or pertaining to the god, or the planet, Jupiter. [F., fr. L. Jovialis pertaining to Jove. The planet Jupiter was thought to make those born under it joyful or jovial. See Jove.]
- bier n.
- A handbarrow or portable frame on which a corpse is placed or borne to the grave. [OE. bæe, beere, AS. b, b; akin to D. baar, OHG. bara, G. bahre, Icel barar, Dbaare, L. feretrum, Gr. , from the same bear to produce. See 1st Bear, and cf. Barr]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dear Jack 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, Dear Jack, in Ballads (1849–1855), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/thackeray-ballads/dear-jack.html, id L10382.
Form and metre
Dear Jack is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.2 syllables. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in anapaestic 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 AA--BB fillA · hillA · sot · pot · surpassB · glassB
- 2 AABBCC snugA · jugA · appearB · bierB · canC · nanC
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Dear Jack, this white mug that with Guinness I fill, | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| And drink to the health of sweet Nan of the Hill, | 11 | ··········· |
| Was once Tommy Tosspot's, as jovial a sot | 11 | ··/˘···/˘·· |
| As e'er drew a spigot, or drain'd a full pot-- | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| In drinking all round 'twas his joy to surpass, | 11 | ·/˘······˘/ |
| And with all merry tipplers he swigg'd off his glass. | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| One morning in summer, while seated so snug, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| In the porch of his garden, discussing his jug, | 12 | ·····/˘˘/˘·· |
| Stern Death, on a sudden, to Tom did appear, | 11 | ····/˘···˘/ |
| And said, "Honest Thomas, come take your last bier." | 11 | ··/˘/˘····· |
| We kneaded his clay in the shape of this can, | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| From which let us drink to the health of my Nan. | 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.