Amour 26
Cupid, dumbe-Idoll, peeuish Saint of loue,No more shalt thou nor Saint nor Idoll be;No God art thou, a Goddesse shee doth proue,Of all thine honour shee hath robbed thee.Thy Bowe, halfe broke, is peec'd with old desire;Her Bowe is beauty with ten thousand stringsOf purest gold, tempred with vertues fire,The least able to kyll an hoste of Kings.Thy shafts be spent, and shee (to warre appointed)Hydes in those christall quiuers of her eyesMore Arrowes, with hart-piercing mettel poynted,Then there be starres at midnight in the skyes.With these she steales mens harts for her reliefe,Yet happy he thats robd of such a thiefe!
Words in this poem
- cupid
- The god of love, son of Venus; usually represented as a naked, winged boy with bow and arrow. [L.Cupido, fr. cupido desire, desire of love, fr. cupidus. See Cupidity.]
- idoll n.
- An image or representation of anything. [OE. idole, F. idole, L. idolum, fr. Gr. Wit, and cf. Eidolon.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amour 26 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 26, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-26.html, id L20567.
Form and metre
Amour 26 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 loueA · beB · proueA · theeB · desireC · stringsD · fireC · kingsD · appointed · eyesE · poynted · skyesE · reliefeF · thiefeF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cupid, dumbe-Idoll, peeuish Saint of loue, | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| No more shalt thou nor Saint nor Idoll be; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| No God art thou, a Goddesse shee doth proue, | 10 | ·········· |
| Of all thine honour shee hath robbed thee. | 10 | ···/˘···˘· |
| Thy Bowe, halfe broke, is peec'd with old desire; | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Her Bowe is beauty with ten thousand strings | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Of purest gold, tempred with vertues fire, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| The least able to kyll an hoste of Kings. | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Thy shafts be spent, and shee (to warre appointed) | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Hydes in those christall quiuers of her eyes | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| More Arrowes, with hart-piercing mettel poynted, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘···· |
| Then there be starres at midnight in the skyes. | 10 | ·····/···· |
| With these she steales mens harts for her reliefe, | 10 | ·········· |
| Yet happy he thats robd of such a thiefe! | 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.