To the King's Most Excellent Majesty. 1768
YOUR subjects hope, dread Sire--The crown upon your brows may flourish long,And that your arm may in your God be strong!O may your sceptre num'rous nations sway,And all with love and readiness obey!But how shall we the British king reward!Rule thou in peace, our father, and our lord!Midst the remembrance of thy favours past,The meanest peasants most admire the lastMay George, beloved by all the nations round,Live with heav'ns choicest constant blessings crown'd!Great God, direct, and guard him from on high,And from his head let ev'ry evil fly!And may each clime with equal gladness seeA monarch's smile can set his subjects free!
Words in this poem
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
- sceptre n.
- A staff or baton borne by a sovereign, as a ceremonial badge or emblem of authority; a royal mace. [F. sceptre, L. sceptrum, from Gr. shaft. See Shaft, and cf. Scape a stem, shaft.]
- 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,]
- admire v. t.
- To regard with wonder or astonishment; to view with surprise; to marvel at. [F. admirer, fr. L. admirari; ad + mirari to wonder, for smirari, akin to Gr. smi, and E. smile.]
- clime n.
- A climate; a tract or region of the earth. See Climate. [L. clima. See Climate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the King's Most Excellent Majesty. 1768 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, To the King's Most Excellent Majesty. 1768, in Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #409, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wheatley-poems/to-the-king-s-most-excellent-majesty-1768.html, id L07707.
Form and metre
To the King's Most Excellent Majesty. 1768 is 15 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 93% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 13% 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 -AABBCCDDEEFFGG sire · longA · strongA · swayB · obeyB · rewardC · lordC · pastD · lastD · roundE · crown'dE · highF · flyF · seeG · freeG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| YOUR subjects hope, dread Sire-- | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| The crown upon your brows may flourish long, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And that your arm may in your God be strong! | 10 | ·········· |
| O may your sceptre num'rous nations sway, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And all with love and readiness obey! | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘/ |
| But how shall we the British king reward! | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Rule thou in peace, our father, and our lord! | 10 | ····//˘·/· |
| Midst the remembrance of thy favours past, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| The meanest peasants most admire the last | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| May George, beloved by all the nations round, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Live with heav'ns choicest constant blessings crown'd! | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Great God, direct, and guard him from on high, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| And from his head let ev'ry evil fly! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And may each clime with equal gladness see | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| A monarch's smile can set his subjects free! | 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.