On the Death of a young Gentleman
WHO taught thee conflict with the pow'rs of night,To vanquish satan in the fields of light?Who strung thy feeble arms with might unknown,How great thy conquest, and how bright thy crown!War with each princedom, throne, and pow'r is o'er,The scene is ended to return no more.O could my muse thy seat on high behold,How deckt with laurel, how enrich'd with gold!O could she hear what praise thine harp employs,How sweet thine anthems, how divine thy joys!What heav'nly grandeur should exalt her strain!What holy raptures in her numbers reign!To sooth the troubles of the mind to peace,To still the tumult of life's tossing seas,To ease the anguish of the parents heart,What shall my sympathizing verse impart?Where is the balm to heal so deep a wound?Where shall a sov'reign remedy be found?Look, gracious Spirit, from thine heav'nly bow'r,And thy full joys into their bosoms pour;The raging tempest of their grief control,And spread the dawn of glory through the soul,To eye the path the saint departed trod,And trace him to the bosom of his God.
Words in this poem
- princedom n.
- The jurisdiction, sovereignty, rank, or estate of a prince.
- sooth a.
- True; faithful; trustworthy. [OE. soth, AS. s, for san; akin to OS. s, OHG. sand, Icel. sannr, Sw. sann, Dan. sand, Skr. sat, sant, real, genuine, present, being; properly p. pr. from a root]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Death of a young Gentleman is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems on various subjects, religious and moral, Project Gutenberg ebook #409; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Phillis Wheatley, On the Death of a young Gentleman, in Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #409, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wheatley-poems/on-the-death-of-a-young-gentleman.html, id L25923.
Form and metre
On the Death of a young Gentleman is 24 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 AA---BCCDDEE--FFGG-BHHII nightA · lightA · unknown · crown · o'er · moreB · beholdC · goldC · employsD · joysD · strainE · reignE · peace · seas · heartF · impartF · woundG · foundG · bow'r · pourB · controlH · soulH · trodI · godI
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 |
|---|---|---|
| WHO taught thee conflict with the pow'rs of night, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To vanquish satan in the fields of light? | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Who strung thy feeble arms with might unknown, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| How great thy conquest, and how bright thy crown! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| War with each princedom, throne, and pow'r is o'er, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The scene is ended to return no more. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| O could my muse thy seat on high behold, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| How deckt with laurel, how enrich'd with gold! | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| O could she hear what praise thine harp employs, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| How sweet thine anthems, how divine thy joys! | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| What heav'nly grandeur should exalt her strain! | 10 | ···˘/·˘/·· |
| What holy raptures in her numbers reign! | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| To sooth the troubles of the mind to peace, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To still the tumult of life's tossing seas, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| To ease the anguish of the parents heart, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| What shall my sympathizing verse impart? | 10 | ···/˘·˘·˘/ |
| Where is the balm to heal so deep a wound? | 10 | ·········· |
| Where shall a sov'reign remedy be found? | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Look, gracious Spirit, from thine heav'nly bow'r, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And thy full joys into their bosoms pour; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The raging tempest of their grief control, | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| And spread the dawn of glory through the soul, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To eye the path the saint departed trod, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| And trace him to the bosom of his God. | 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.