Amour 30
Three sorts of serpents doe resemble thee;That daungerous eye-killing Cockatrice,Th' inchaunting Syren, which doth so entice,The weeping Crocodile; these vile pernicious three.The Basiliske his nature takes from thee,Who for my life in secret wait do'st lye,And to my heart send'st poyson from thine eye:Thus do I feele the paine, the cause yet cannot see.Faire-mayd no more, but Mayr-maid be thy name,Who with thy sweet aluring harmonyHast playd the thiefe, and stolne my hart from me,And, like a Tyrant, mak'st my griefe thy game.The Crocodile, who, when thou hast me slaine,Lament'st my death with teares of thy disdaine.
Words in this poem
- cockatrice n.
- A fabulous serpent whose breath and look were said to be fatal.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amour 30 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 30, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-30.html, id L20571.
Form and metre
Amour 30 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 A--AABBAC-ACDD theeA · cockatrice · entice · threeA · theeA · lyeB · eyeB · seeA · nameC · harmony · meA · gameC · slaineD · disdaineD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Three sorts of serpents doe resemble thee; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| That daungerous eye-killing Cockatrice, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Th' inchaunting Syren, which doth so entice, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| The weeping Crocodile; these vile pernicious three. | 12 | ·/˘/˘···˘/˘· |
| The Basiliske his nature takes from thee, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Who for my life in secret wait do'st lye, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And to my heart send'st poyson from thine eye: | 10 | ·········· |
| Thus do I feele the paine, the cause yet cannot see. | 13 | ··········/˘· |
| Faire-mayd no more, but Mayr-maid be thy name, | 10 | ·········· |
| Who with thy sweet aluring harmony | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Hast playd the thiefe, and stolne my hart from me, | 10 | ·········· |
| And, like a Tyrant, mak'st my griefe thy game. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The Crocodile, who, when thou hast me slaine, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Lament'st my death with teares of thy disdaine. | 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.