v. Also 4–7 versifye, -fie (5 uersefiȝe, versfy), 5 versyfyyn, wersyfy, 5–6 versyfy. [ad. OF. vercifier, versifier (13th c. in Godef., Compl., = Prov. versifiar), ad. L. versificāre (whence It. versificare, Sp., Pg. versificar), f. versus VERSE sb. + 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 yt 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 or 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.
