Of an Elegy Made by Mrs Wharton on the Earl of Rochester
Thus mourn the Muses! on the hearseNot strewing tears, but lasting verse,Which so preserve the hero's name,They make him live again in fame.
Chloris, in lines so like his own,Gives him so just and high renown,That she th'afflicted world relieves,And shows that still in her he lives;Her wit as graceful, great, and good;Allied in genius, as in blood.
His loss supplied, now all our fearsAre, that the nymph should melt in tears.Then, fairest Chloris! comfort take,For his, your own, and for our sake,Lest his fair soul, that lives in you,Should from the world for ever go.'Mrs. Wharton': the daughter, and co-heiress with the Countess ofAbingdon, of Sir Henry Lee, of Ditchley, in Oxfordshire.'In blood': the Earl of Rochester's mother was Mrs. Wharton's grandaunt.
Words in this poem
- strewing n.
- The act of scattering or spreading.
- heiress
- , A female heir.
- countess n.
- The wife of an earl in the British peerage, or of a count in the Continental nobility; also, a lady possessed of the same dignity in her own right. See the Note under Count. [F. comtesse. See Count a nobleman.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Of an Elegy Made by Mrs Wharton on the Earl of Rochester 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, Of an Elegy Made by Mrs Wharton on the Earl of Rochester, in Poetical Works (1645–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waller-denham/of-an-elegy-made-by-mrs-wharton-on-the-earl-of-rochester.html, id L09070.
Form and metre
Of an Elegy Made by Mrs Wharton on the Earl of Rochester is 20 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.8 syllables. 20% 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 AABB hearseA · verseA · nameB · fameB
- 2 ----AA own · renown · relieves · lives · goodA · bloodA
- 3 AABB------ fearsA · tearsA · takeB · sakeB · you · go · of · oxfordshire · grand · aunt
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thus mourn the Muses! on the hearse | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Not strewing tears, but lasting verse, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Which so preserve the hero's name, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| They make him live again in fame. | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Chloris, in lines so like his own, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Gives him so just and high renown, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| That she th'afflicted world relieves, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And shows that still in her he lives; | 8 | ········ |
| Her wit as graceful, great, and good; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Allied in genius, as in blood. | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| His loss supplied, now all our fears | 9 | ··˘/··/˘· |
| Are, that the nymph should melt in tears. | 8 | ········ |
| Then, fairest Chloris! comfort take, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| For his, your own, and for our sake, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Lest his fair soul, that lives in you, | 8 | ········ |
| Should from the world for ever go. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| 'Mrs. Wharton': the daughter, and co-heiress with the Countess of | 16 | /˘/˘·/˘··/˘··/˘· |
| Abingdon, of Sir Henry Lee, of Ditchley, in Oxfordshire. | 14 | /˘··/˘········ |
| 'In blood': the Earl of Rochester's mother was Mrs. Wharton's grand | 16 | ·····/·˘/˘·/˘/˘· |
| aunt. | 1 | · |
Notes from the edition 1
George Gilfillan's notes to the Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham (1857; Project Gutenberg #12322).
- Stanza 2, line 6 'In blood': the Earl of Rochester's mother was Mrs. Wharton's grand aunt.
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