For Drinking of Healths
Let brutes and vegetals, that cannot think,So far as drought and nature urges, drink;A more indulgent mistress guides our sp'rits,Reason, that dares beyond our appetites;(She would our care, as well as thirst, redress),And with divinity rewards excess.Deserted Ariadne, thus supplied,Did perjured Theseus' cruelty deride;Bacchus embraced, from her exalted thoughtBanish'd the man, her passion, and his fault.Bacchus and Phoebus are by Jove allied,And each by other's timely heat supplied;All that the grapes owe to his rip'ning firesIs paid in numbers which their juice inspires.Wine fills the veins, and healths are understoodTo give our friends a title to our blood;Who, naming me, doth warm his courage so,Shows for my sake what his bold hand would do.
Words in this poem
- perjured a.
- Guilty of perjury; having sworn falsely; forsworn.
- deride v. t.
- To laugh at with contempt; to laugh to scorn; to turn to ridicule or make sport of; to mock; to scoff at. [L. deridere, derisum; de- + rid to laugh. See Ridicule.]
- phoebus n.
- Apollo; the sun god.
- jove n.
- The chief divinity of the ancient Romans; Jupiter. [L. Jupiter, gen. Jovis, OL. Jovis, nom. & gen. for Djovis; akin to E. Tuesday. See Tuesday, and cf. Jupiter.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
For Drinking of Healths 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, For Drinking of Healths, in Cooper's Hill, and Other Poems (1645–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waller-denham/for-drinking-of-healths.html, id L09039.
Form and metre
For Drinking of Healths is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 78% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 84% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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.
- 1 AABBCCDD--DDEEFF-- thinkA · drinkA · sp'ritsB · appetitesB · redressC · excessC · suppliedD · derideD · thought · fault · alliedD · suppliedD · firesE · inspiresE · understoodF · bloodF · so · do
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Let brutes and vegetals, that cannot think, | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| So far as drought and nature urges, drink; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| A more indulgent mistress guides our sp'rits, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·/· |
| Reason, that dares beyond our appetites; | 10 | /˘····//˘· |
| (She would our care, as well as thirst, redress), | 10 | ··/·····/˘ |
| And with divinity rewards excess. | 10 | ··˘/˘˘˘/˘/ |
| Deserted Ariadne, thus supplied, | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/˘·˘/ |
| Did perjured Theseus' cruelty deride; | 10 | ·/˘˘··/˘˘/ |
| Bacchus embraced, from her exalted thought | 10 | /˘˘/··˘/˘· |
| Banish'd the man, her passion, and his fault. | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Bacchus and Phoebus are by Jove allied, | 10 | /˘·/˘···˘/ |
| And each by other's timely heat supplied; | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| All that the grapes owe to his rip'ning fires | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Is paid in numbers which their juice inspires. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Wine fills the veins, and healths are understood | 10 | ········˘/ |
| To give our friends a title to our blood; | 10 | ··/··/˘·/· |
| Who, naming me, doth warm his courage so, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Shows for my sake what his bold hand would do. | 10 | ·········· |
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.