Amour 14
Looking into the glasse of my youths miseries,I see the ugly face of my deformed cares,With withered browes, all wrinckled with dispaires,That for my mis-spent youth the tears fel from my eyes.Then, in these teares, the mirror of these eyes,Thy fayrest youth and Beautie doe I seeImprinted in my teares by looking still on thee:Thus midst a thousand woes ten thousand joyes arise.Yet in those joyes, the shadowes of my good,In this fayre limned ground as white as snow,Paynted the blackest Image of my woe,With murthering hands imbru'd in mine own blood:And in this Image his darke clowdy eyes,My life, my youth, my loue, I heere Anotamize.Now, Loue, if thou wilt proue a Conqueror,
About this text
Amour 14 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 14, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-14.html, id L20555.
Form and metre
Amour 14 is 15 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 53% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 ABBAACCADEEDAA- miseriesA · caresB · dispairesB · eyesA · eyesA · seeC · theeC · ariseA · goodD · snowE · woeE · bloodD · eyesA · anotamizeA · conqueror
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Looking into the glasse of my youths miseries, | 11 | /˘·······/˘ |
| I see the ugly face of my deformed cares, | 11 | ···/˘···˘/· |
| With withered browes, all wrinckled with dispaires, | 9 | ·/˘····˘/ |
| That for my mis-spent youth the tears fel from my eyes. | 12 | ············ |
| Then, in these teares, the mirror of these eyes, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Thy fayrest youth and Beautie doe I see | 10 | ·········· |
| Imprinted in my teares by looking still on thee: | 12 | ˘/˘····/˘··· |
| Thus midst a thousand woes ten thousand joyes arise. | 12 | ···/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Yet in those joyes, the shadowes of my good, | 10 | ·····/···· |
| In this fayre limned ground as white as snow, | 9 | ········· |
| Paynted the blackest Image of my woe, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| With murthering hands imbru'd in mine own blood: | 11 | ··········· |
| And in this Image his darke clowdy eyes, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| My life, my youth, my loue, I heere Anotamize. | 12 | ············ |
| Now, Loue, if thou wilt proue a Conqueror, | 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.