To a Friend of the Author, a Person of Honour, Who Lately Writ a Religious Book, Entitled 'Historical Applications, and Occasional Meditations, upon Several Subjects'
Bold is the man that dares engageFor piety in such an age!Who can presume to find a guardFrom scorn, when Heaven's so little spared?Divines are pardon'd; they defendAltars on which their lives depend;But the profane impatient are,When nobler pens make this their care;For why should these let in a beamOf divine light to trouble them,And call in doubt their pleasing thought,That none believes what we are taught?High birth and fortune warrant giveThat such men write what they believe;And, feeling first what they indite,New credit give to ancient light.Amongst these few, our author bringsHis well-known pedigree from kings.This book, the image of his mind,Will make his name not hard to find;I wish the throng of great and goodMade it less eas'ly understood!
Words in this poem
- presume v. t.
- To assume or take beforehand; esp., to do or undertake without leave or authority previously obtained. [F. présumer, L. praesumere, praesumptum; prae before + sumere to take. See Assume, Redeem.]
- 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. ]
- amongst prep.
- Mixed or mingled; surrounded by. [OE. amongist, amonges, amonge, among, AS. onmang, ongemang, gemang, in a crowd or mixture. For the ending -st see Amidst. See Mingle.]
- pedigree n.
- A line of ancestors; descent; lineage; genealogy; a register or record of a line of ancestors. [Of unknown origin; possibly fr. F. par degrés by degrees, -- for a pedigree is properly a genealogical table which records the relationship of families by degre]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Friend of the Author, a Person of Honour, Who Lately Writ a Religious Book, Entitled 'Historical Applications, and Occasional Meditations, upon Several Subjects' 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, To a Friend of the Author, a Person of Honour, Who Lately Writ a Religious Book, Entitled 'Historical Applications, and Occasional Meditations, upon Several Subjects', in Cooper's Hill, and Other Poems (1645–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waller-denham/to-a-friend-of-the-author-a-person-of-honour-who-lately-writ-a-religious-book-entitled-historical-applications-and-occasional-meditations-upon-several-subjects.html, id L26329.
Form and metre
To a Friend of the Author, a Person of Honour, Who Lately Writ a Religious Book, Entitled 'Historical Applications, and Occasional Meditations, upon Several Subjects' is 22 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 88%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK engageA · ageA · guardB · sparedB · defendC · dependC · areD · careD · beamE · themE · thoughtF · taughtF · giveG · believeG · inditeH · lightH · bringsI · kingsI · mindJ · findJ · goodK · understoodK
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Bold is the man that dares engage | 8 | ······˘/ |
| For piety in such an age! | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Who can presume to find a guard | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| From scorn, when Heaven's so little spared? | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| Divines are pardon'd; they defend | 8 | ˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| Altars on which their lives depend; | 8 | /˘····˘/ |
| But the profane impatient are, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| When nobler pens make this their care; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| For why should these let in a beam | 8 | ········ |
| Of divine light to trouble them, | 8 | ·˘/··/˘· |
| And call in doubt their pleasing thought, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That none believes what we are taught? | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| High birth and fortune warrant give | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| That such men write what they believe; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And, feeling first what they indite, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| New credit give to ancient light. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Amongst these few, our author brings | 8 | ····//˘· |
| His well-known pedigree from kings. | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| This book, the image of his mind, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Will make his name not hard to find; | 8 | ········ |
| I wish the throng of great and good | 8 | ········ |
| Made it less eas'ly understood! | 8 | ······˘/ |
Notes from the edition 1
George Gilfillan's notes to the Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham (1857; Project Gutenberg #12322).
- Line 18 'Pedigree from kings': the Earl of Berkeley was descended from the royal house of Denmark.
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.