On the Head of a Stag
So we some antique hero's strengthLearn by his lance's weight and length,As these vast beams express the beastWhose shady brows alive they dress'd.Such game, while yet the world was new,The mighty Nimrod did pursue.What huntsman of our feeble race,Or dogs, dare such a monster chase,Resembling, with each blow he strikes,The charge of a whole troop of pikes?O fertile head! which every yearCould such a crop of wonder bear!The teeming earth did never bringSo soon, so hard, so huge a thing;Which might it never have been cast(Each year's growth added to the last),These lofty branches had suppliedThe earth's bold sons' prodigious pride;Heaven with these engines had been scaled,When mountains heap'd on mountains fail'd.
Words in this poem
- huntsman n.
- One who hunts, or who practices hunting.
- teeming a.
- Prolific; productive.
- prodigious a.
- Of the nature of a prodigy; marvelous; wonderful; portentous. [L. prodigiosus, fr. prodigium a prodigy; cf. F. prodigieux. See Prodigy.]
- scaled a.
- Covered with scales, or scalelike structures; -- said of a fish, a reptile, a moth, etc.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Head of a Stag 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 the Head of a Stag, in Cooper's Hill, and Other Poems (1645–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waller-denham/on-the-head-of-a-stag.html, id L09052.
Form and metre
On the Head of a Stag is 20 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 91%). 94% 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. 30% 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ strengthA · lengthA · beastB · dress'dB · newC · pursueC · raceD · chaseD · strikesE · pikesE · yearF · bearF · bringG · thingG · castH · lastH · suppliedI · prideI · scaledJ · fail'dJ
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 |
|---|---|---|
| So we some antique hero's strength | 8 | ···˘//˘· |
| Learn by his lance's weight and length, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| As these vast beams express the beast | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Whose shady brows alive they dress'd. | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Such game, while yet the world was new, | 8 | ········ |
| The mighty Nimrod did pursue. | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| What huntsman of our feeble race, | 8 | ·/˘·//˘· |
| Or dogs, dare such a monster chase, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Resembling, with each blow he strikes, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| The charge of a whole troop of pikes? | 8 | ········ |
| O fertile head! which every year | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Could such a crop of wonder bear! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The teeming earth did never bring | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| So soon, so hard, so huge a thing; | 8 | ········ |
| Which might it never have been cast | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| (Each year's growth added to the last), | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| These lofty branches had supplied | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| The earth's bold sons' prodigious pride; | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Heaven with these engines had been scaled, | 8 | /··/˘··· |
| When mountains heap'd on mountains fail'd. | 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.