Amour 20
Reading sometyme, my sorrowes to beguile,I find old Poets hylls and floods admire:One, he doth wonder monster-breeding Nyle,Another meruailes Sulphure Aetnas fire.Now broad-brymd Indus, then of Pindus height,Pelion and Ossa, frosty Caucase old,The Delian Cynthus, then Olympus weight,Slow Arrer, franticke Gallus, Cydnus cold.Some Ganges, Ister, and of Tagus tell,Some whir-poole Po, and slyding Hypasis;Some old Pernassus where the Muses dwell,Some Helycon, and some faire Simois:A, fooles! thinke I, had you Idea seene,Poore Brookes and Banks had no such wonders beene.
Words in this poem
- admire v. t.
- To regard with wonder or astonishment; to view with surprise; to marvel at. [F. admirer, fr. L. admirari; ad + mirari to wonder, for smirari, akin to Gr. smi, and E. smile.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amour 20 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 20, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-20.html, id L20561.
Form and metre
Amour 20 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 ABAB-C-CD-D-EE beguileA · admireB · nyleA · fireB · height · oldC · weight · coldC · tellD · hypasis · dwellD · simois · seeneE · beeneE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Reading sometyme, my sorrowes to beguile, | 11 | /˘····/˘·˘/ |
| I find old Poets hylls and floods admire: | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| One, he doth wonder monster-breeding Nyle, | 11 | ···/˘/˘/˘·· |
| Another meruailes Sulphure Aetnas fire. | 11 | ˘/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Now broad-brymd Indus, then of Pindus height, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Pelion and Ossa, frosty Caucase old, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The Delian Cynthus, then Olympus weight, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Slow Arrer, franticke Gallus, Cydnus cold. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Some Ganges, Ister, and of Tagus tell, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Some whir-poole Po, and slyding Hypasis; | 10 | ·········· |
| Some old Pernassus where the Muses dwell, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Some Helycon, and some faire Simois: | 9 | ········· |
| A, fooles! thinke I, had you Idea seene, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Poore Brookes and Banks had no such wonders beene. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
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