Amour 10
Oft taking pen in hand, with words to cast my woes,Beginning to account the sum of all my cares,I well perceiue my griefe innumerable growes,And still in reckonings rise more millions of dispayres.And thus, deuiding of my fatall howres,The payments of my loue I read, and reading crosse,And in substracting set my sweets vnto my sowres;Th' average of my ioyes directs me to my losse.And thus mine eyes, a debtor to thine eye,Who by extortion gaineth all theyr lookes,My hart hath payd such grieuous vsury,That all her wealth lyes in thy Beauties bookes;And all is thine which hath been due to mee,And I a Banckrupt, quite vndone by thee.
Words in this poem
- fatall a.
- Proceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny; necessary; inevitable. [L. fatalis, fr. fatum: cf. F. fatal. See Fate.]
- crosse n.
- The implement with which the ball is thrown and caught in the game of lacrosse.
- losse n.
- Praise. See Loos.
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amour 10 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, Amour 10, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-10.html, id L20551.
Form and metre
Amour 10 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 ABABA-A-CD-DCC woesA · caresB · growesA · dispayresB · howresA · crosse · sowresA · losse · eyeC · lookesD · vsury · bookesD · meeC · theeC
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oft taking pen in hand, with words to cast my woes, | 12 | ·/˘········· |
| Beginning to account the sum of all my cares, | 12 | ˘/˘·˘/······ |
| I well perceiue my griefe innumerable growes, | 10 | ·····˘/˘˘· |
| And still in reckonings rise more millions of dispayres. | 12 | ···/˘··/˘··· |
| And thus, deuiding of my fatall howres, | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| The payments of my loue I read, and reading crosse, | 12 | ·/˘······/˘· |
| And in substracting set my sweets vnto my sowres; | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| Th' average of my ioyes directs me to my losse. | 11 | /˘···˘/···· |
| And thus mine eyes, a debtor to thine eye, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Who by extortion gaineth all theyr lookes, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| My hart hath payd such grieuous vsury, | 8 | ········ |
| That all her wealth lyes in thy Beauties bookes; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And all is thine which hath been due to mee, | 10 | ·········· |
| And I a Banckrupt, quite vndone by thee. | 9 | ········· |
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.