A burnt ship
Out of a fired ship, which, by no wayBut drowning, could be rescued from the flame,Some men leap'd forth, and ever as they cameNeere the foes ships, did by their shot decay;So all were lost, which in the ship were found,They in the sea being burnt, they in the burnt ship drown'd.
About this text
A burnt ship is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts, Project Gutenberg ebook #48688; 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 Donne, A burnt ship, in Poems (1633), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #48688, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/donne-poems/a-burnt-ship.html, id L19877.
Form and metre
A burnt ship is 6 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBACC. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBACC wayA · flameB · cameB · decayA · foundC · drown'dC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Out of a fired ship, which, by no way | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But drowning, could be rescued from the flame, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Some men leap'd forth, and ever as they came | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Neere the foes ships, did by their shot decay; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| So all were lost, which in the ship were found, | 10 | ·········· |
| They in the sea being burnt, they in the burnt ship drown'd. | 12 | ····/······· |
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.