Sent to a Gentle-Woman
Know you, faire, on what you looke?Divinest love lyes in this booke:Expecting fier from your faire eyes,To kindle this his sacrifice.
When your hands untie these strings,Think, yo' have an angell by the wings;One that gladly would be nigh,To waite upon each morning sigh;To flutter in the balmy aireOf your well-perfumed praier;These white plumes of his hee'l lend you,Which every day to Heaven will send you:To take acquaintance of each spheare,And all your smooth-fac'd kindred there.And though HERBERT'S name doe oweThese devotions; fairest, knowWhile I thus lay them on the shrineOf your white hand, they are mine.
Words in this poem
- gladly adv.
- Preferably; by choice. [From Glad, a.]
- balmy a.
- Having the qualities of balm; odoriferous; aromatic; assuaging; soothing; refreshing; mild.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sent to a Gentle-Woman is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, Volume I, Project Gutenberg ebook #38549; 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 Crashaw, Sent to a Gentle-Woman, in Steps to the Temple and Other Poems (1646–1652), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38549, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/crashaw-poems/sent-to-a-gentle-woman.html, id L12076.
Form and metre
Sent to a Gentle-Woman is 18 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 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 AA-- lookeA · bookeA · eyes · sacrifice
- 2 AABBC-DD-CEEFF stringsA · wingsA · nighB · sighB · aireC · praier · youD · youD · spheare · thereC · oweE · knowE · shrineF · mineF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Know you, faire, on what you looke? | 7 | ······· |
| Divinest love lyes in this booke: | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Expecting fier from your faire eyes, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| To kindle this his sacrifice. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| When your hands untie these strings, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Think, yo' have an angell by the wings; | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| One that gladly would be nigh, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| To waite upon each morning sigh; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To flutter in the balmy aire | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Of your well-perfumed praier; | 6 | ···˘/· |
| These white plumes of his hee'l lend you, | 8 | ········ |
| Which every day to Heaven will send you: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| To take acquaintance of each spheare, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| And all your smooth-fac'd kindred there. | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| And though HERBERT'S name doe owe | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| These devotions; fairest, know | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘· |
| While I thus lay them on the shrine | 8 | ········ |
| Of your white hand, they are mine. | 7 | ······· |
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.