Amour 34
My fayre, looke from those turrets of thine eyes,Into the Ocean of a troubled minde,Where my poor soule, the Barke of sorrow, lyes,Left to the mercy of the waues and winde.See where she flotes, laden with purest loue,Which those fayre Ilands of thy lookes affoord,Desiring yet a thousand deaths to proue,Then so to cast her Ballase ouerboard.See how her sayles be rent, her tacklings worne,Her Cable broke, her surest Anchor lost:Her Marryners doe leaue her all forlorne,Yet how shee bends towards that blessed Coast!Loe! where she drownes in stormes of thy displeasure,Whose worthy prize should haue enricht thy treasure.
Words in this poem
- 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 34 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 34, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-34.html, id L20575.
Form and metre
Amour 34 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ABABC-C-D-D-EE eyesA · mindeB · lyesA · windeB · loueC · affoord · proueC · ouerboard · worneD · lost · forlorneD · coast · displeasureE · treasureE
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 fayre, looke from those turrets of thine eyes, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Into the Ocean of a troubled minde, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Where my poor soule, the Barke of sorrow, lyes, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Left to the mercy of the waues and winde. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| See where she flotes, laden with purest loue, | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| Which those fayre Ilands of thy lookes affoord, | 10 | ·········· |
| Desiring yet a thousand deaths to proue, | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Then so to cast her Ballase ouerboard. | 9 | ········· |
| See how her sayles be rent, her tacklings worne, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Her Cable broke, her surest Anchor lost: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Her Marryners doe leaue her all forlorne, | 10 | ·········· |
| Yet how shee bends towards that blessed Coast! | 10 | ········˘· |
| Loe! where she drownes in stormes of thy displeasure, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Whose worthy prize should haue enricht thy treasure. | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
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.