On the Statue of King Charles I., at Charing Cross, in the Year 1674
That the First Charles does here in triumph ride,See his son reign where he a martyr died,And people pay that rev'rence as they pass,(Which then he wanted!) to the sacred brass,Is not the effect of gratitude alone,To which we owe the statue and the stone;But Heaven this lasting monument has wrought,That mortals may eternally be taughtRebellion, though successful, is but vain,And kings so kill'd rise conquerors again.This truth the royal image does proclaim,Loud as the trumpet of surviving Fame.
Words in this poem
- eternally adv.
- In an eternal manner.
- surviving a.
- Remaining alive; yet living or existing; as, surviving friends; surviving customs.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Statue of King Charles I., at Charing Cross, in the Year 1674 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 Statue of King Charles I., at Charing Cross, in the Year 1674, in Poetical Works (1645–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waller-denham/on-the-statue-of-king-charles-i-at-charing-cross-in-the-year.html, id L09127.
Form and metre
On the Statue of King Charles I., at Charing Cross, in the Year 1674 is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 8% 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 AABBCCDDEEFF rideA · diedA · passB · brassB · aloneC · stoneC · wroughtD · taughtD · vainE · againE · proclaimF · fameF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| That the First Charles does here in triumph ride, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| See his son reign where he a martyr died, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And people pay that rev'rence as they pass, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| (Which then he wanted!) to the sacred brass, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Is not the effect of gratitude alone, | 11 | ···˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| To which we owe the statue and the stone; | 10 | ·····/···· |
| But Heaven this lasting monument has wrought, | 10 | ·/·/˘/˘˘·· |
| That mortals may eternally be taught | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘·· |
| Rebellion, though successful, is but vain, | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/˘··· |
| And kings so kill'd rise conquerors again. | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘/ |
| This truth the royal image does proclaim, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Loud as the trumpet of surviving Fame. | 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.