To the Prince (Afterwards Charles the First.)
For ever dear, for ever dreaded prince,You read some verse of mine a little since,And so pronounced each word and every letterYour gratious reading made my verse the better:Since that your highness doth by gifte exceedingMake what you read the better for your reading,Let my poor muse thus far your grace importuneTo leave to reade my verse, and read my fortune.
Words in this poem
- highness n.
- The state of being high; elevation; loftiness. [AS. heáhnes.]
- importune a.
- Inopportune; unseasonable. [F. importun, L. importunus; pref. im- not + a derivative from the root of portus harbor, importunus therefore orig. meaning, hard of access. See Port harbor, an]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the Prince (Afterwards Charles the First.) is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Richard Corbet, late bishop of Oxford and of Norwich 4th edition, Project Gutenberg ebook #65375; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Richard Corbet, To the Prince (Afterwards Charles the First.), in Poems (1647), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #65375, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/corbet-poems/to-the-prince-afterwards-charles-the-first.html, id L08894.
Form and metre
To the Prince (Afterwards Charles the First.) is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.8 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 AABBCCDD princeA · sinceA · letterB · betterB · exceedingC · readingC · importuneD · fortuneD
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| For ever dear, for ever dreaded prince, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| You read some verse of mine a little since, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And so pronounced each word and every letter | 11 | ··˘/···/˘/˘ |
| Your gratious reading made my verse the better: | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Since that your highness doth by gifte exceeding | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| Make what you read the better for your reading, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Let my poor muse thus far your grace importune | 11 | ··········· |
| To leave to reade my verse, and read my fortune. | 11 | ·········/˘ |
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.