Amour 23
Wonder of Heauen, glasse of diuinitie,Rare beautie, Natures joy, perfections Mother,The worke of that vnited Trinitie,Wherein each fayrest part excelleth other!Loues Mithridate, the purest of perfection,Celestiall Image, Load-stone of desire,The soules delight, the sences true direction,Sunne of the world, thou hart reuyuing fire!Why should'st thou place thy Trophies in those eyes,Which scorne the honor that is done to thee,Or make my pen her name immortalize,Who in her pride sdaynes once to look on me?It is thy heauen within her face to dwell,And in thy heauen, there onely, is my hell.
Words in this poem
- celestiall a.
- Belonging to the aërial regions, or visible heavens. [OF. celestial, celestied, fr. L. caelestic, fr. caelum heaved. See Cell.]
- immortalize v. t.
- To render immortal; to cause to live or exist forever. S. Clarke. [Cf. F. immortaliser.]
- 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 23 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 23, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-23.html, id L20564.
Form and metre
Amour 23 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 90%).
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 diuinitieA · motherB · trinitieA · otherB · perfectionC · desireD · directionC · fireD · eyesE · theeF · immortalizeE · meF · dwellG · hellG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wonder of Heauen, glasse of diuinitie, | 9 | /˘······· |
| Rare beautie, Natures joy, perfections Mother, | 11 | ···/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| The worke of that vnited Trinitie, | 9 | ········· |
| Wherein each fayrest part excelleth other! | 11 | ······˘/˘/˘ |
| Loues Mithridate, the purest of perfection, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Celestiall Image, Load-stone of desire, | 11 | ˘/˘/˘···˘/˘ |
| The soules delight, the sences true direction, | 11 | ··˘/····˘/˘ |
| Sunne of the world, thou hart reuyuing fire! | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Why should'st thou place thy Trophies in those eyes, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Which scorne the honor that is done to thee, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Or make my pen her name immortalize, | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Who in her pride sdaynes once to look on me? | 10 | ·········· |
| It is thy heauen within her face to dwell, | 10 | ·········· |
| And in thy heauen, there onely, is my hell. | 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.