An Epigram on a Painted Lady with ILL Teeth
Were men so dull they could not seeThat Lyce painted; should they flee,Like simple birds, into a netSo grossly woven and ill set,Her own teeth would undo the knot,And let all go that she had got.Those teeth fair Lyce must not showIf she would bite; her lovers, thoughLike birds they stoop at seeming grapes,Are disabused when first she gapes;The rotten bones discover'd there,Show 'tis a painted sepulchre.
Words in this poem
- sepulchre n.
- The place in which the dead body of a human being is interred, or a place set apart for that purpose; a grave; a tomb. [OE. sepulcre, OF. sepulcre, F. sépulcre, fr. L. sepulcrum, sepulchrum, fr. sepelire to bury.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Epigram on a Painted Lady with ILL Teeth is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham, Project Gutenberg ebook #12322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edmund Waller, An Epigram on a Painted Lady with ILL Teeth, in Cooper's Hill, and Other Poems (1645–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waller-denham/an-epigram-on-a-painted-lady-with-ill-teeth.html, id L09120.
Form and metre
An Epigram on a Painted Lady with ILL Teeth is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEEFF seeA · fleeA · netB · setB · knotC · gotC · showD · thoughD · grapesE · gapesE · thereF · sepulchreF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Were men so dull they could not see | 8 | ········ |
| That Lyce painted; should they flee, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Like simple birds, into a net | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| So grossly woven and ill set, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Her own teeth would undo the knot, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And let all go that she had got. | 8 | ········ |
| Those teeth fair Lyce must not show | 7 | ······· |
| If she would bite; her lovers, though | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Like birds they stoop at seeming grapes, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Are disabused when first she gapes; | 8 | ·˘˘/···· |
| The rotten bones discover'd there, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Show 'tis a painted sepulchre. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
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.