On the Picture of a Fair Youth, Taken After He Was Dead
As gather'd flowers, while their wounds are new,Look gay and fresh, as on the stalk they grew;Torn from the root that nourish'd them, awhile(Not taking notice of their fate) they smile,And, in the hand which rudely pluck'd them, showFairer than those that to their autumn grow;So love and beauty still that visage grace;Death cannot fright them from their wonted place.Alive, the hand of crooked Age had marr'd,Those lovely features which cold Death has spared.
No wonder then he sped in love so well,When his high passion he had breath to tell;When that accomplish'd soul, in this fair frame,No business had but to persuade that dame,Whose mutual love advanced the youth so high,That, but to heaven, he could no higher fly.
Words in this poem
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
- visage n.
- The face, countenance, or look of a person or an animal; -- chiefly applied to the human face. [F. visage, from L. visus a seeing, a look, fr. videre, visum, to see. See Vision.]
- wonted a.
- Accustomed; customary; usual.
- dame n.
- A mistress of a family, who is a lady; a womam in authority; especially, a lady. [F. dame, LL. domna, fr. L. domina mistress, lady, fem. of dominus master, ruler, lord; akin to domare to tame, subdue. See Tame, and cf. Dam mother, Dan, Danger]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Picture of a Fair Youth, Taken After He Was Dead 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 Picture of a Fair Youth, Taken After He Was Dead, in Poetical Works (1645–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waller-denham/on-the-picture-of-a-fair-youth-taken-after-he-was-dead.html, id L09056.
Form and metre
On the Picture of a Fair Youth, Taken After He Was Dead is 16 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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-- newA · grewA · awhileB · smileB · showC · growC · graceD · placeD · marr'd · spared
- 2 AABBCC wellA · tellA · frameB · dameB · highC · flyC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As gather'd flowers, while their wounds are new, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Look gay and fresh, as on the stalk they grew; | 10 | ·········· |
| Torn from the root that nourish'd them, awhile | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| (Not taking notice of their fate) they smile, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And, in the hand which rudely pluck'd them, show | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Fairer than those that to their autumn grow; | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| So love and beauty still that visage grace; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Death cannot fright them from their wonted place. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Alive, the hand of crooked Age had marr'd, | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| Those lovely features which cold Death has spared. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| No wonder then he sped in love so well, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| When his high passion he had breath to tell; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| When that accomplish'd soul, in this fair frame, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| No business had but to persuade that dame, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| Whose mutual love advanced the youth so high, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| That, but to heaven, he could no higher fly. | 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.