Sir Iohn Wingefield
Beyond th'old Pillers many have travailedTowards the Suns cradle, and his throne, and bed:A fitter Piller our Earle did bestowIn that late Island; for he well did knowFarther then Wingefield no man dares to goe.
Words in this poem
- fitter n.
- A little piece; a flitter; a flinder.
- piller n.
- One who pills or plunders.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sir Iohn Wingefield 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, Sir Iohn Wingefield, in Poems (1633), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #48688, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/donne-poems/sir-iohn-wingefield.html, id L19879.
Form and metre
Sir Iohn Wingefield is 5 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 10.7 syllables.
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 --AAA travailed · bed · bestowA · knowA · goeA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Beyond th'old Pillers many have travailed | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Towards the Suns cradle, and his throne, and bed: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| A fitter Piller our Earle did bestow | 10 | ·/˘/˘/··˘/ |
| In that late Island; for he well did know | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Farther then Wingefield no man dares to goe. | 11 | /˘········· |
Notes from the edition 7
Herbert Grierson's record of the readings of the early editions and manuscripts, from his Poems of John Donne (Oxford, 1912; Project Gutenberg #48688).
- Line 1 he hath so much 1633-69: he have such A18, N, TC: Hamon hath such B, Cy, HN (have), O'F, S96, W
- Line 1 Klockius] Rawlings Bur
- Line 1 Martiall I muse, 1633-54: Martiall, I amuse, 1669
- Line 2 throne W: grave O'F
- Line 2 In bawdie] In a bawdie HN
- Line 4 late W: Lady O'F
- Line 4 that] om. HN, O'F, W
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.