Amour 3
My thoughts bred vp with Eagle-birds of loue,And, for their vertues I desiered to know,Vpon the nest I set them forth, to proueIf they were of the Eagles kinde or no:But they no sooner saw my Sunne appeare,But on her rayes with gazing eyes they stood;Which proou'd my birds delighted in the ayre,And that they came of this rare kinglie brood.But now their plumes, full sumd with sweet desire,To shew their kinde began to clime the skies:Doe what I could my Eaglets would aspire,Straight mounting vp to thy celestiall eyes.And thus (my faire) my thoughts away be flowne,And from my breast into thine eyes be gone.
Words in this poem
- delighted a.
- Endowed with delight.
- shew n.
- Show. [Obs. except in shewbread.]
- clime n.
- A climate; a tract or region of the earth. See Climate. [L. clima. See Climate.]
- aspire v. t.
- To aspire to; to long for; to try to reach; to mount to.
- celestiall a.
- Belonging to the aërial regions, or visible heavens. [OF. celestial, celestied, fr. L. caelestic, fr. caelum heaved. See Cell.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amour 3 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 3, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-3.html, id L20544.
Form and metre
Amour 3 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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-C-- loueA · knowB · proueA · noB · appeare · stood · ayre · brood · desire · skiesC · aspire · eyesC · flowne · gone
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My thoughts bred vp with Eagle-birds of loue, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And, for their vertues I desiered to know, | 10 | ·······˘·· |
| Vpon the nest I set them forth, to proue | 9 | ········· |
| If they were of the Eagles kinde or no: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But they no sooner saw my Sunne appeare, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But on her rayes with gazing eyes they stood; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Which proou'd my birds delighted in the ayre, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| And that they came of this rare kinglie brood. | 10 | ·········· |
| But now their plumes, full sumd with sweet desire, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| To shew their kinde began to clime the skies: | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Doe what I could my Eaglets would aspire, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Straight mounting vp to thy celestiall eyes. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| And thus (my faire) my thoughts away be flowne, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| And from my breast into thine eyes be gone. | 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.