On a Girdle
That which her slender waist confined,Shall now my joyful temples bind;No monarch but would give his crown,His arms might do what this has done.
It was my heaven's extremest sphere,The pale which held that lovely deer.My joy, my grief, my hope, my love,Did all within this circle move!
A narrow compass! and yet thereDwelt all that's good, and all that's fair;Give me but what this ribband bound,Take all the rest the sun goes round.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On a Girdle 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, On a Girdle, in Poetical Works (1645–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waller-denham/on-a-girdle.html, id L09045.
Form and metre
On a Girdle is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 AA-- confinedA · bindA · crown · done
- 2 AABB sphereA · deerA · loveB · moveB
- 3 AABB thereA · fairA · boundB · roundB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| That which her slender waist confined, | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| Shall now my joyful temples bind; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| No monarch but would give his crown, | 8 | ·/······ |
| His arms might do what this has done. | 8 | ········ |
| It was my heaven's extremest sphere, | 9 | ···/˘˘/˘· |
| The pale which held that lovely deer. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| My joy, my grief, my hope, my love, | 8 | ········ |
| Did all within this circle move! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A narrow compass! and yet there | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Dwelt all that's good, and all that's fair; | 8 | ········ |
| Give me but what this ribband bound, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Take all the rest the sun goes round. | 8 | ········ |
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.