To the King
Great Sir! disdain not in this piece to stand,Supreme commander both of sea and land.Those which inhabit the celestial bower,Painters express with emblems of their power;His club Alcides, Phoebus has his bow,Jove has his thunder, and your navy you.
But your great providence no colours hereCan represent, nor pencil draw that care,Which keeps you waking to secure our peace,The nation's glory, and our trade's increase;You, for these ends, whole days in council sit,And the diversions of your youth forget.
Small were the worth of valour and of force,If your high wisdom governed not their course;You as the soul, as the first mover you,Vigour and life on every part bestow;How to build ships, and dreadful ordnance cast,Instruct the artists, and reward their haste.
So Jove himself, when Typhon heaven does brave,Descends to visit Vulcan's smoky cave,Teaching the brawny Cyclops how to frameHis thunder, mix'd with terror, wrath, and flame.Had the old Greeks discover'd your abode,Crete had not been the cradle of their god;On that small island they had looked with scorn,And in Great Britain thought the Thunderer born.
Words in this poem
- phoebus n.
- Apollo; the sun god.
- jove n.
- The chief divinity of the ancient Romans; Jupiter. [L. Jupiter, gen. Jovis, OL. Jovis, nom. & gen. for Djovis; akin to E. Tuesday. See Tuesday, and cf. Jupiter.]
- vigour v. t.
- To invigorate. Feltham.
- dreadful a.
- Full of dread or terror; fearful.
- instruct a.
- Arranged; furnished; provided. [L. instructus, p. p. of instruere to furnish, provide, construct, instruct; pref. in- in, struere. See Structure.]
- typhon n.
- According to Hesiod, the son of Typhoeus, and father of the winds, but later identified with him. [Gr. Typhoon.]
- brawny a.
- Having large, strong muscles; muscular; fleshy; strong.
- abode n.
- Act of waiting; delay. [OE. abad, abood, fr. abiden to abide. See Abide. For the change of vowel, cf. abode, imp. of abide.]
- thunderer n.
- One who thunders; -- used especially as a translation of L.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the King 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 the King, in Poetical Works (1645–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waller-denham/to-the-king.html, id L09102.
Form and metre
To the King is 26 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 62% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 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 AABB-- standA · landA · bowerB · powerB · bow · you
- 2 AABB-- hereA · careA · peaceB · increaseB · sit · forget
- 3 AA---- forceA · courseA · you · bestow · cast · haste
- 4 AABB--CC braveA · caveA · frameB · flameB · abode · god · scornC · bornC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Great Sir! disdain not in this piece to stand, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Supreme commander both of sea and land. | 10 | ˘/˘/˘····· |
| Those which inhabit the celestial bower, | 11 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| Painters express with emblems of their power; | 11 | /˘˘/·/˘··/˘ |
| His club Alcides, Phoebus has his bow, | 9 | ··/·/˘··· |
| Jove has his thunder, and your navy you. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| But your great providence no colours here | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Can represent, nor pencil draw that care, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Which keeps you waking to secure our peace, | 10 | ···/˘·˘//· |
| The nation's glory, and our trade's increase; | 10 | ·/˘/˘·/·˘/ |
| You, for these ends, whole days in council sit, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And the diversions of your youth forget. | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| Small were the worth of valour and of force, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| If your high wisdom governed not their course; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| You as the soul, as the first mover you, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Vigour and life on every part bestow; | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| How to build ships, and dreadful ordnance cast, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Instruct the artists, and reward their haste. | 10 | ˘/·/˘·˘/·· |
| So Jove himself, when Typhon heaven does brave, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/·· |
| Descends to visit Vulcan's smoky cave, | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Teaching the brawny Cyclops how to frame | 10 | /˘·/˘/···· |
| His thunder, mix'd with terror, wrath, and flame. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Had the old Greeks discover'd your abode, | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| Crete had not been the cradle of their god; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| On that small island they had looked with scorn, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And in Great Britain thought the Thunderer born. | 11 | ···/˘··/˘˘· |
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.