---
title: First I was a poet; now sold for a few pence as a lark; no doubt it… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: First I was a poet; now sold for a few pence as a lark; no doubt it was that accursed poetical nature which has metamorphosed me into such a poor harmless little creature. Who acts: I, doubt. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shoes of Fortune, part 4, with its dependency 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/8/105/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Andersen's Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/) / [The Shoes of Fortune, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/8/) / 105

# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Shoes of Fortune, part 4, sentence 105

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
First I was a poet; now sold for a few pence as a lark; no doubt it was that accursed poetical nature which has metamorphosed me into such a poor harmless little creature.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, doubt · **What happens:** be, sell, accurs, metamorphose · **To what, where:** poet, accursed poetical nature, poor harmless little creature

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Shoes of Fortune, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, doubt), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg1597:8:105
# text = First I was a poet; now sold for a few pence as a lark; no doubt it was that accursed poetical nature which has metamorphosed me into such a poor harmless little creature.
1	First	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	advmod	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	poet	poet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	_
8	sold	sell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	pence	pence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	as	as	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	lark	lark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
17	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	18	det	_	_
18	doubt	doubt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	accursed	accurs	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	amod	_	_
23	poetical	poetical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	nature	nature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
25	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	metamorphosed	metamorphose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl:relcl	_	_
28	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	into	into	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
30	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	35	det:predet	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
32	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
33	harmless	harmless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
34	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | I | a poet and accursed poetical nature |  |  |  | first *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **sell** | participle |  | a poet and accursed poetical nature *not said here* |  |  | now | for a few pence; as a lark | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent for pence=Asset |
| 3 | **accurs** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | past | no doubt | accursed poetical nature |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **metamorphose** | present · perfect · passive |  | accursed poetical nature |  | such poor harmless little creature |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 1597 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 104](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/8/104/)
- next →: [sentence 106](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/8/106/)
- ↑ back to [The Shoes of Fortune, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg1597/8/)