Samuel Daniel
"Sweet honey-dropping Daniel doth wageWar with the proudest big ItalianThat melts his heart in sugared sonnetting."
"... the civil wars, tumultuous broils,And bloody factions of a mighty land."
"But Avon, poor in fame and poor in waters,Shall have my song, where Delia hath her seat."
"I . . . . . . .. . . never had my harmless pen at allDistained with any loose immodesty,But still have done the fairest officesTo virtue and the time."
Words in this poem
- wage v. i.
- To bind one's self; to engage.
- 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,]
- immodesty n.
- Want of modesty, delicacy, or decent reserve; indecency. [L. immodestia: cf. F. immodestie.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Samuel Daniel is in the public domain. This text is taken from Elizabethan Sonnet-Cycles: Delia - Diana, Project Gutenberg ebook #18842; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Samuel Daniel, Samuel Daniel, in Delia, with Constable's Diana (1592), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18842, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/daniel-delia/samuel-daniel.html, id L02775.
Form and metre
Samuel Daniel is 12 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.7 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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.
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "Sweet honey-dropping Daniel doth wage | 9 | ·/˘/˘/˘·· |
| War with the proudest big Italian | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| That melts his heart in sugared sonnetting." | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| "... the civil wars, tumultuous broils, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘˘· |
| And bloody factions of a mighty land." | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| "But Avon, poor in fame and poor in waters, | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| Shall have my song, where Delia hath her seat." | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| "I . . . . . . . | 1 | · |
| . . . never had my harmless pen at all | 9 | /˘··/˘··· |
| Distained with any loose immodesty, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| But still have done the fairest offices | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| To virtue and the time." | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.