The Benediction
Blest payre of Swans, Oh may you interbringDaily new joyes, and never sing,Live, till all grounds of wishes faile,Till honor, yea till wisedome grow so stale,That, new great heights to trie,It must serve your ambition, to die;Raise heires, and may here, to the worlds end, liveHeires from this King, to take thankes, you, to give,Nature and grace doe all, and nothing Art.May never age, or error overthwartWith any West, these radiant eyes, with any North, this heart.
Words in this poem
- payre n.
- One who pays; specifically, the person by whom a bill or note has been, or should be, paid.
- overthwart a.
- Having a transverse position; placed or situated across; hence, opposite.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Benediction 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, The Benediction, in Poems (1633), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #48688, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/donne-poems/the-benediction.html, id L04948.
Form and metre
The Benediction is 11 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 91% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.7 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 27% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEEE interbringA · singA · faileB · staleB · trieC · dieC · liveD · giveD · artE · overthwartE · heartE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Blest payre of Swans, Oh may you interbring | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Daily new joyes, and never sing, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Live, till all grounds of wishes faile, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Till honor, yea till wisedome grow so stale, | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| That, new great heights to trie, | 6 | ······ |
| It must serve your ambition, to die; | 9 | ····˘/˘·· |
| Raise heires, and may here, to the worlds end, live | 10 | ·········· |
| Heires from this King, to take thankes, you, to give, | 10 | ·········· |
| Nature and grace doe all, and nothing Art. | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| May never age, or error overthwart | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| With any West, these radiant eyes, with any North, this heart. | 14 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘··· |
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.