With Illustrations
BostonLate Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co.
Entered according to Act of Congress,in the years 1865 and 1867, byin the Clerk's Office of the District Courtof the District of Massachusetts.
Words in this poem
- congress n.
- A meeting of individuals, whether friendly or hostile; an encounter. [L. congressus, fr. congredi, p.p. -gressus, to go or come together; con- + grati to go or step, gradus step: cf. F. congr. See Grade.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
With Illustrations is in the public domain. This text is taken from Snow-bound, Project Gutenberg ebook #20226; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Greenleaf Whittier, With Illustrations, in Snow-Bound (1866), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #20226, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whittier-snow-bound/with-illustrations.html, id L04230.
Form and metre
With Illustrations is 6 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 81% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Boston | 2 | /˘ |
| Late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co. | 9 | ·/˘···/·· |
| Entered according to Act of Congress, | 10 | /˘˘/˘···/˘ |
| in the years 1865 and 1867, by | 5 | ····· |
| in the Clerk's Office of the District Court | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| of the District of Massachusetts. | 9 | ··/˘··˘/˘ |
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.