To His Serving Boy
Persicos odiPuer, apparatus;Displicent nexaePhilyrâ coronae:Mitte sectari,Rosa qua locorumSera moretur.
Simplici myrtoNihil allaboresSedulus, curo:Neque te ministrumDedecet myrtus,Neque me sub arctâVite bibentem.
Words in this poem
- puer n.
- The dung of dogs, used as an alkaline steep in tanning. [Etymol. uncertain.]
- nihil n.
- Nothing. Nihil album Etym: [L., white nothing] (Chem.), oxide of zinc. See under Zinc. [L.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To His Serving Boy 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, To His Serving Boy, in Ballads (1849–1855), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/thackeray-ballads/to-his-serving-boy.html, id L10375.
Form and metre
To His Serving Boy is 14 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.9 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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--- odi · apparatus · nexaeA · coronaeA · sectari · locorum · moretur
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 trochaic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Persicos odi | 5 | ˘/˘·· |
| Puer, apparatus; | 6 | /˘·˘/˘ |
| Displicent nexae | 4 | ···· |
| Philyrâ coronae: | 4 | ···· |
| Mitte sectari, | 6 | ///··· |
| Rosa qua locorum | 6 | /˘···· |
| Sera moretur. | 5 | /˘··· |
| Simplici myrto | 5 | ····· |
| Nihil allabores | 5 | /˘··· |
| Sedulus, curo: | 5 | ····· |
| Neque te ministrum | 5 | ····· |
| Dedecet myrtus, | 5 | ····· |
| Neque me sub arctâ | 4 | ···· |
| Vite bibentem. | 4 | ···· |
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.