To Mr I. L
Of that short Roll of friends writ in my heartWhich with thy name begins, since their depart,Whether in the English Provinces they be,Or drinke of Po, Sequan, or Danubie,There's none that sometimes greets us not, and yetYour Trent is Lethe; that past, us you forget.You doe not duties of Societies,If from the'embrace of a lov'd wife you rise,View your fat Beasts, stretch'd Barnes, and labour'd fields,Eate, play, ryde, take all joyes which all day yeelds,And then againe to your embracements goe:Some houres on us your frends, and some bestowUpon your Muse, else both wee shall repent,I that my love, she that her guifts on you are spent.
Words in this poem
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
- lethe n.
- A river of Hades whose waters when drunk caused forgetfulness of the past.
- 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,]
- repent a.
- Prostrate and rooting; -- said of stems. Gray. [L. repens, -entis, creeping, p. pr. of repere to creep.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Mr I. L 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, To Mr I. L, in Poems (1633), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #48688, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/donne-poems/to-mr-i-l.html, id L04976.
Form and metre
To Mr I. L is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG heartA · departA · beB · danubieB · yetC · forgetC · societiesD · riseD · fieldsE · yeeldsE · goeF · bestowF · repentG · spentG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Of that short Roll of friends writ in my heart | 10 | ·········· |
| Which with thy name begins, since their depart, | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| Whether in the English Provinces they be, | 10 | ····/˘/˘·· |
| Or drinke of Po, Sequan, or Danubie, | 10 | ·········· |
| There's none that sometimes greets us not, and yet | 10 | ···˘/····· |
| Your Trent is Lethe; that past, us you forget. | 11 | ···/˘····˘/ |
| You doe not duties of Societies, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| If from the'embrace of a lov'd wife you rise, | 10 | ·········· |
| View your fat Beasts, stretch'd Barnes, and labour'd fields, | 10 | ·········· |
| Eate, play, ryde, take all joyes which all day yeelds, | 10 | ·········· |
| And then againe to your embracements goe: | 11 | ··········· |
| Some houres on us your frends, and some bestow | 10 | ·/······˘/ |
| Upon your Muse, else both wee shall repent, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| I that my love, she that her guifts on you are spent. | 12 | ············ |
Notes from the edition 3
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 5 sometimes] sometime 1635-39, Chambers
- Line 13 your] thy W
- Line 14 you] thee 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.