Peace, Babbling Muse!
Peace, babbling Muse!I dare not sing what you indite;Her eyes refuseTo read the passion which they write.She strikes my lute, but, if it sound,Threatens to hurl it on the ground;And I no less her anger dread,Than the poor wretch that feigns him dead,While some fierce lion does embraceHis breathless corpse, and lick his face;Wrapp'd up in silent fear he lies,Torn all in pieces if he cries.
Words in this poem
- indite v. t.
- To compose; to write; to be author of; to dictate; to prompt. [OE. enditen to indite, indict, OF. enditer to indicate, show, dictate, write, inform, and endicter to accuse; both fr. LL. indictare to show, to accuse, fr. L. ]
- breathless a.
- Spent with labor or violent action; out of breath.
- corpse n.
- A human body in general, whether living or dead; -- sometimes contemptuosly. [OF. cors (sometimes written corps), F. corps, L. corpus; akin to AS. hrif womb. See Midriff, and cf. Corse, Corselet, Corps, Cuerpo.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Peace, Babbling Muse! 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, Peace, Babbling Muse!, in Poetical Works (1645–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waller-denham/peace-babbling-muse.html, id L09106.
Form and metre
Peace, Babbling Muse! is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 17% 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 ABABCCDDEEFF museA · inditeB · refuseA · writeB · soundC · groundC · dreadD · deadD · embraceE · faceE · liesF · criesF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Peace, babbling Muse! | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| I dare not sing what you indite; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Her eyes refuse | 4 | ··˘/ |
| To read the passion which they write. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| She strikes my lute, but, if it sound, | 8 | ········ |
| Threatens to hurl it on the ground; | 8 | /˘······ |
| And I no less her anger dread, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Than the poor wretch that feigns him dead, | 8 | ········ |
| While some fierce lion does embrace | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| His breathless corpse, and lick his face; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Wrapp'd up in silent fear he lies, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Torn all in pieces if he cries. | 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.