Amour 12
Some Atheist or vile Infidell in loue,When I doe speake of thy diuinitie,May blaspheme thus, and say I flatter thee,And onely write my skill in verse to proue.See myracles, ye vnbeleeuing! seeA dumbe-born Muse made to expresse the mind,A cripple hand to write, yet lame by kind,One by thy name, the other touching thee.Blind were mine eyes, till they were seene of thine,And mine eares deafe by thy fame healed be;My vices cur'd by vertues sprung from thee,My hopes reuiu'd, which long in graue had lyne:All vncleane thoughts, foule spirits, cast out in meeBy thy great power, and by strong fayth in thee.
Words in this poem
- atheist n.
- One who disbelieves or denies the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being. [Gr. athéiste.]
- infidell a.
- Not holding the faith; -- applied esp. to one who does not believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures, and the supernatural origin of Christianity. [L. infidelis; pref. in- not + fidelis faithful, fr. fides faith: cf. F. infidèle. See Fidelity.]
- blaspheme v. t.
- To speak of, or address, with impious irreverence; to revile impiously (anything sacred); as, to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. [OE. blasfem, L. blasphemare, fr. Gr. : cf. F. blasphémer. See Blame, v.]
- cripple n.
- One who creeps, halts, or limps; one who has lost, or never had, the use of a limb or limbs; a lame person; hence, one who is partially disabled. [OE. cripel, crepel, crupel, AS. crypel (akin to D. kreuple, G. kr, Dan. kr, Icel. kryppill), prop., one that can not walk, but must creep, fr. AS. cre to creep.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amour 12 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 12, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-12.html, id L20553.
Form and metre
Amour 12 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
See 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 A-BABCCBDBBDBB loueA · diuinitie · theeB · proueA · seeB · mindC · kindC · theeB · thineD · beB · theeB · lyneD · meeB · theeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Some Atheist or vile Infidell in loue, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| When I doe speake of thy diuinitie, | 9 | ········· |
| May blaspheme thus, and say I flatter thee, | 10 | ·˘/····/˘· |
| And onely write my skill in verse to proue. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| See myracles, ye vnbeleeuing! see | 7 | ······· |
| A dumbe-born Muse made to expresse the mind, | 10 | ·········· |
| A cripple hand to write, yet lame by kind, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| One by thy name, the other touching thee. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Blind were mine eyes, till they were seene of thine, | 10 | ·········· |
| And mine eares deafe by thy fame healed be; | 10 | ········˘· |
| My vices cur'd by vertues sprung from thee, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| My hopes reuiu'd, which long in graue had lyne: | 9 | ········· |
| All vncleane thoughts, foule spirits, cast out in mee | 11 | ···/˘/˘···· |
| By thy great power, and by strong fayth in thee. | 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.