A Song
Gentle nymphs, be not refusing,Love's neglect is time's abusing,They and beauty are but lent you;Take the one and keep the other;Love keeps fresh what age doth smother;Beauty gone you will repent you.
'Twill be said when ye have proved,Never swains more truly loved:Oh then fly all nice behaviour!Pity fain would (as her duty)Be attending still on Beauty,Let her not be out of favour.
Words in this poem
- repent a.
- Prostrate and rooting; -- said of stems. Gray. [L. repens, -entis, creeping, p. pr. of repere to creep.]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- favour n.
- Kind regard; propitious aspect; countenance; friendly disposition; kindness; good will. [Written also favour.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from Pastoral Poems by Nicholas Breton, Selected Poetry by George Wither, and Pastoral Poetry by William Browne (of Tavistock), Project Gutenberg ebook #22001; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Nicholas Breton, A Song, in Pastoral Poems and Selected Poetry (1597–1604), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22001, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/breton-poems/a-song.html, id L08863.
Form and metre
A Song is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 10 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in trochaic 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 AABCCB refusingA · abusingA · youB · otherC · smotherC · youB
- 2 ---AA- proved · loved · behaviour · dutyA · beautyA · favour
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Gentle nymphs, be not refusing, | 8 | /˘···˘/˘ |
| Love's neglect is time's abusing, | 8 | ·˘/··˘/˘ |
| They and beauty are but lent you; | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Take the one and keep the other; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Love keeps fresh what age doth smother; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Beauty gone you will repent you. | 8 | /˘···˘/· |
| 'Twill be said when ye have proved, | 8 | ·······˘ |
| Never swains more truly loved: | 8 | /˘··/˘·˘ |
| Oh then fly all nice behaviour! | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Pity fain would (as her duty) | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Be attending still on Beauty, | 8 | ·˘/˘··/˘ |
| Let her not be out of favour. | 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.