A Poet, Or, Sound-Hearted Lover's Farewell to His Mistress
Fair Nymph, who dost my fate controul,And reign'st the mistress of my soul,Where thou all bright in beauties rayHast held a long tyrannick sway,They who the hardest rule maintain,In their commands do still refrainFrom what impossible must prove,But thou hast bade me cease to love;Nor would some gentle mercy give,And only bid me cease to live.Ah! when the magnet's pow'r is o'er,The compass then will point no more;And when no verdure cloaths the spring,The tuneful birds forget to sing:But thou all sweet and heav'nly fair,Hast bade thy swain from love forbear.In pity let thine own fair handA death's-wound to this bosom send:This tender heart of purest faithMay then resign thee with its breath;And in the sun-beam of thine eyeA proud and willing victim die.
But since thou wilt not have it so,Far from thy presence will I go:Far from my heart's dear bliss I'll stray,Since I no longer can obey.In foreign climes I'll distant roam,No more to hail my native home:To foreign swains I'll pour my woe,In foreign plains my tears shall flow:By murm'ring stream and shady groveShall other echoes tell my love;And richer flow'rs of vivid hueUpon my tomb shall other maidens strew.
Adieu, dear Phillis! should'ft thou e'erSome soft and plaintive story hear,Of hapless youth who died for love,Or all forlorn did banish'd rove,O think of me! nor then denyThe gentle tribute of a sigh.
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
- tuneful a.
- Harmonious; melodious; musical; as, tuneful notes.
- 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,]
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Poet, Or, Sound-Hearted Lover's Farewell to His Mistress is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, &c. (1790) Wherein It Is Attempted To Describe Certain Views Of Nature And Of Rustic Manners; And Also, To Point Out, In Some Instances, The Different Influence Which The Same Circumstances Produce On Different Characters, Project Gutenberg ebook #14617; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Joanna Baillie, A Poet, Or, Sound-Hearted Lover's Farewell to His Mistress, in Poems (1790) (1790), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14617, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/baillie-poems/a-poet-or-sound-hearted-lover-s-farewell-to-his-mistress.html, id L09861.
Form and metre
A Poet, Or, Sound-Hearted Lover's Farewell to His Mistress is 40 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 70% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 22% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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.
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 AABBCCDDEE--FF------GG controulA · soulA · rayB · swayB · maintainC · refrainC · proveD · loveD · giveE · liveE · o'er · more · springF · singF · fair · forbear · hand · send · faith · breath · eyeG · dieG
- 2 AABBCCAA--DD soA · goA · strayB · obeyB · roamC · homeC · woeA · flowA · grove · love · hueD · strewD
- 3 AA--BB e'erA · hearA · love · rove · denyB · sighB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fair Nymph, who dost my fate controul, | 8 | ········ |
| And reign'st the mistress of my soul, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Where thou all bright in beauties ray | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Hast held a long tyrannick sway, | 8 | ········ |
| They who the hardest rule maintain, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| In their commands do still refrain | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| From what impossible must prove, | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| But thou hast bade me cease to love; | 8 | ········ |
| Nor would some gentle mercy give, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And only bid me cease to live. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Ah! when the magnet's pow'r is o'er, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The compass then will point no more; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And when no verdure cloaths the spring, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The tuneful birds forget to sing: | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| But thou all sweet and heav'nly fair, | 8 | ········ |
| Hast bade thy swain from love forbear. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| In pity let thine own fair hand | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A death's-wound to this bosom send: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| This tender heart of purest faith | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| May then resign thee with its breath; | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And in the sun-beam of thine eye | 8 | ········ |
| A proud and willing victim die. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| But since thou wilt not have it so, | 8 | ········ |
| Far from thy presence will I go: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Far from my heart's dear bliss I'll stray, | 8 | ········ |
| Since I no longer can obey. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| In foreign climes I'll distant roam, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| No more to hail my native home: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To foreign swains I'll pour my woe, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In foreign plains my tears shall flow: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| By murm'ring stream and shady grove | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Shall other echoes tell my love; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And richer flow'rs of vivid hue | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Upon my tomb shall other maidens strew. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Adieu, dear Phillis! should'ft thou e'er | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| Some soft and plaintive story hear, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Of hapless youth who died for love, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Or all forlorn did banish'd rove, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| O think of me! nor then deny | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The gentle tribute of a sigh. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
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.