A Consonet
Eyes with your teares, blind if you bee,Why haue these teares such eyes to see,Poore eyes, if yours teares cannot moue,My teares, eyes, then must mone my loue,Then eyes, since you haue lost your sight,Weepe still, and teares shall lend you light,Till both desolu'd, and both want might.No, no, cleere eyes, you are not blind,But in my teares discerne my mind:Teares be the language which you speake,Which my hart wanting, yet must breake;My tongue must cease to tell my wrongs,And make my sighs to get them tongs,Yet more then this to her belongs.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Consonet is in the public domain. This text is taken from Minor Poems of Michael Drayton, Project Gutenberg ebook #17873; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Michael Drayton, A Consonet, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/a-consonet.html, id L02726.
Form and metre
A Consonet is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic 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 AABBCCCDDEEFFF beeA · seeA · moueB · loueB · sightC · lightC · mightC · blindD · mindD · speakeE · breakeE · wrongsF · tongsF · belongsF
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Eyes with your teares, blind if you bee, | 8 | ········ |
| Why haue these teares such eyes to see, | 8 | ········ |
| Poore eyes, if yours teares cannot moue, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| My teares, eyes, then must mone my loue, | 8 | ········ |
| Then eyes, since you haue lost your sight, | 8 | ········ |
| Weepe still, and teares shall lend you light, | 8 | ········ |
| Till both desolu'd, and both want might. | 9 | ········· |
| No, no, cleere eyes, you are not blind, | 8 | ········ |
| But in my teares discerne my mind: | 8 | ········ |
| Teares be the language which you speake, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Which my hart wanting, yet must breake; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| My tongue must cease to tell my wrongs, | 8 | ········ |
| And make my sighs to get them tongs, | 8 | ········ |
| Yet more then this to her belongs. | 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.