Amour 11
Thine eyes taught mee the Alphabet of loue,To con my Cros-rowe ere I learn'd to spell;For I was apt, a scholler like to proue,Gaue mee sweet lookes when as I learned well.Vowes were my vowels, when I then begunAt my first Lesson in thy sacred name:My consonants the next when I had done,Words consonant, and sounding to thy fame.My liquids then were liquid christall teares,My cares my mutes, so mute to craue reliefe;My dolefull Dypthongs were my liues dispaires,Redoubling sighes the accents of my griefe:My loues Schoole-mistris now hath taught me so,That I can read a story of my woe.
Words in this poem
- dolefull a.
- Full of dole or grief; expressing or exciting sorrow; sorrowful; sad; dismal.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amour 11 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 11, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-11.html, id L20552.
Form and metre
Amour 11 is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
See other English sonnets, 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG loueA · spellB · proueA · wellB · begunC · nameD · doneC · fameD · tearesE · reliefeF · dispairesE · griefeF · soG · woeG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thine eyes taught mee the Alphabet of loue, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To con my Cros-rowe ere I learn'd to spell; | 10 | ·········· |
| For I was apt, a scholler like to proue, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Gaue mee sweet lookes when as I learned well. | 10 | ········˘· |
| Vowes were my vowels, when I then begun | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| At my first Lesson in thy sacred name: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| My consonants the next when I had done, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Words consonant, and sounding to thy fame. | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| My liquids then were liquid christall teares, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| My cares my mutes, so mute to craue reliefe; | 10 | ·········· |
| My dolefull Dypthongs were my liues dispaires, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Redoubling sighes the accents of my griefe: | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| My loues Schoole-mistris now hath taught me so, | 11 | ··········· |
| That I can read a story of my woe. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
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.