versify, v.
(ˈvɜːsɪfaɪ)
Also 4–7 versifye, -fie (5 uersefiȝe, versfy), 5 versyfyyn, wersyfy, 5–6 versyfy.
[ad. OF. vercifier, versifier (13th c. in Godef. Compl., = Pr. versifiar), ad. L. versificāre (whence It. versificare, Sp., Pg. versificar), f. versus verse n. + facĕre to make.]
1. intr. To make or compose verses; to write poetry; = verse v.1 1. Also const. upon (or † of) a theme.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 367 For is none of þis newe clerkes..Þat can versifye faire ne formalich enditen. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 508/2 Versyfyyn, versificor. 1483 Cath. Angl. 401/1 To versifye, versificare, versiculare. c 1520 Skelton Magnyf. 1162 Yes, in faythe; I can versyfy. 1579 Lodge Def. Poetry, etc. (Hunt. Club) 15 Tully atributeth it for prais to Archias y{supt} vpon any theame he cold versify extempory. 1612 Brinsley Lud. Lit. viii. (1627) 121 To learne to versifie, ex tempore, of any ordinary Theame. 1656 H. More Enthus. Tri. (1712) 8 Maracus a Poet of Syracuse, who never versified so well as when he was in his distracted fits. 1693 Dryden Juvenal i. 24 Since the World with Writing is Possest, I'll versifie in spite. 1718 Free-thinker No. 136. 236 The Subject..promises no small Glory to the Genius who shall versify upon it. 1798 Lady Bedingfield in Betham Lett. (1905) 51 Cannot you versify as you walk? 1824 Byron Juan xv. xix, Speculating..On what may suit..my story, And never straining hard to versify. 1841 D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 394 A few scholars..had the intrepidity to versify in French with the ancient metres. 1897 Pop. Sci. Monthly L. 391 The true poet does not versify because he would, but because he must. |
2. trans. To narrate or recount in verse; to treat as the subject of verse.
| c 1386 Chaucer Monk's Prol. 90 They [tragedies] ben versified communely Of vj. feet which men clepen Exametron. 1596 Daniel Civ. Wars i. vi, I versify the truth, not poetize. 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. xvii, The silly poet runs home to versify the disaster. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. II. App. 533 The story is versified at great length in the French Life. 1871 Lowell Study Wind., Pope 315 His more ambitious works may be defined as careless thinking carefully versified. |
3. To turn or convert (a literary piece) into verse; to change from prose into verse; to translate or rewrite in verse-form.
| 1735 Pope (title), The Satires of Dr. John Donne,..Versified. 1756 J. Warton Ess. Pope I. 11 The exalted prophesy of Isaiah, which Pope has so successfully versified. 1789 Burney Hist. Mus. III. 35 note, The 30th. Psalm was the first which Luther versified. 1814 D'Israeli Quarrels Auth. (1867) 256 Bolingbroke really wrote the ‘Essay on Man’, which Pope versified. 1837 Lockhart Scott I. viii. 247 These are all in prose like their originals; but he also versified..some lyrical fragments of Goethe. |