Of Her Magnanimitie
$E$ uen as her State, so is her mind,$L$ ifted aboue the vulgar kind;$I$ t treades proud Fortune vnder:$S$ un-like it sits aboue the wind,$A$ boue the stormes, and thunder.
$B$ raue spirit, large heart, admiring nought,$E$ steeming each thing as it ought,$T$ hat swelleth not, nor shrinketh;$H$ onour is alwayes in her thought,$A$ nd of great things she thinketh.
$R$ ocks, pillars, and heauen's axeltree,$E$ xemplifie her constancy;$G$ reat changes neuer change her:$I$ n her sexe, feares are wont to rise,$N$ ature permits, Vertue denies,$A$ nd scornes the face of Danger.
Words in this poem
- admiring a.
- Expressing admiration; as, an admiring glance.
- ought p. p.
- Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. ahte. sq. root110. See Owe.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Of Her Magnanimitie is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Sir John Davies. Volume 1 of 2., Project Gutenberg ebook #44977; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Davies, Of Her Magnanimitie, in The Complete Poems, Volume I (1596–1599), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #44977, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/davies-poems/of-her-magnanimitie.html, id L08818.
Form and metre
Of Her Magnanimitie is 16 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.5 syllables. 5 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 AA-A- mindA · kindA · vnder · windA · thunder
- 2 AABAB noughtA · oughtA · shrinkethB · thoughtA · thinkethB
- 3 ---AA- axeltree · constancy · her · riseA · deniesA · danger
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 |
|---|---|---|
| $E$ uen as her State, so is her mind, | 10 | ·········· |
| $L$ ifted aboue the vulgar kind; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| $I$ t treades proud Fortune vnder: | 7 | ····/˘· |
| $S$ un-like it sits aboue the wind, | 9 | ········· |
| $A$ boue the stormes, and thunder. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| $B$ raue spirit, large heart, admiring nought, | 10 | ··/˘··˘/˘· |
| $E$ steeming each thing as it ought, | 8 | ········ |
| $T$ hat swelleth not, nor shrinketh; | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| $H$ onour is alwayes in her thought, | 8 | ········ |
| $A$ nd of great things she thinketh. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| $R$ ocks, pillars, and heauen's axeltree, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| $E$ xemplifie her constancy; | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| $G$ reat changes neuer change her: | 10 | ····/˘/˘·· |
| $I$ n her sexe, feares are wont to rise, | 9 | ········· |
| $N$ ature permits, Vertue denies, | 8 | ···/··˘/ |
| $A$ nd scornes the face of Danger. | 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.