Amour 19
If those ten Regions, registred by Fame,By theyr ten Sibils haue the world controld,Who prophecied of Christ or ere he came,And of his blessed birth before fore-told;That man-god now, of whom they did diuine,This earth of those sweet Prophets hath bereft,And since the world to iudgement doth declyne,Instead of ten, one Sibil to vs left.Thys pure Idea, vertues right Idea,Shee of whom Merlin long tyme did fore-tell,Excelling her of Delphos or Cumæa,Whose lyfe doth saue a thousand soules from hell:That life (I meane) which doth Religion teach,And by example true repentance preach.
Words in this poem
- merlin n.
- A small European falcon (Falco lithofalco, or F. æsalon). [OE. merlion, F. émerillon ; cf. OHG. smirl, G. schmerl ; prob. fr. L. merula blackbird. Cf. Merle.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amour 19 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 19, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-19.html, id L20560.
Form and metre
Amour 19 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 ABABCDCD-E-EFF fameA · controldB · cameA · toldB · diuineC · bereftD · declyneC · leftD · idea · tellE · cumæa · hellE · teachF · preachF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If those ten Regions, registred by Fame, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| By theyr ten Sibils haue the world controld, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Who prophecied of Christ or ere he came, | 9 | ········· |
| And of his blessed birth before fore-told; | 10 | ····˘····· |
| That man-god now, of whom they did diuine, | 9 | ········· |
| This earth of those sweet Prophets hath bereft, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| And since the world to iudgement doth declyne, | 11 | ··········· |
| Instead of ten, one Sibil to vs left. | 11 | ˘/···/˘·//· |
| Thys pure Idea, vertues right Idea, | 10 | ··˘/˘··˘/˘ |
| Shee of whom Merlin long tyme did fore-tell, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Excelling her of Delphos or Cumæa, | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| Whose lyfe doth saue a thousand soules from hell: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| That life (I meane) which doth Religion teach, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| And by example true repentance preach. | 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.