Amour 4
My faire, had I not erst adorned my LuteWith those sweet strings stolne from thy golden hayre,Vnto the world had all my ioyes been mute,Nor had I learn'd to descant on my faire.Had not mine eye seene thy Celestiall eye,Nor my hart knowne the power of thy name,My soule had ne'er felt thy Diuinitie,Nor my Muse been the trumpet of thy fame.But thy diuine perfections, by their skill,This miracle on my poore Muse haue tried,And, by inspiring, glorifide my quill,And in my verse thy selfe art deified:Thus from thy selfe the cause is thus deriued,That by thy fame all fame shall be suruiued.
Words in this poem
- descant v. i.
- To sing a variation or accomplishment. [From descant; n.; or directly fr. OF. descanter, deschanter; L. dis- + cantare to sing.]
- celestiall a.
- Belonging to the aërial regions, or visible heavens. [OF. celestial, celestied, fr. L. caelestic, fr. caelum heaved. See Cell.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amour 4 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 4, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-4.html, id L20545.
Form and metre
Amour 4 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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-A--B-BCDCDEE luteA · hayre · muteA · faire · eye · nameB · diuinitie · fameB · skillC · triedD · quillC · deifiedD · deriuedE · suruiuedE
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 faire, had I not erst adorned my Lute | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| With those sweet strings stolne from thy golden hayre, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Vnto the world had all my ioyes been mute, | 9 | ········· |
| Nor had I learn'd to descant on my faire. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Had not mine eye seene thy Celestiall eye, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Nor my hart knowne the power of thy name, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| My soule had ne'er felt thy Diuinitie, | 9 | ········· |
| Nor my Muse been the trumpet of thy fame. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But thy diuine perfections, by their skill, | 9 | ···˘/˘··· |
| This miracle on my poore Muse haue tried, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| And, by inspiring, glorifide my quill, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| And in my verse thy selfe art deified: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Thus from thy selfe the cause is thus deriued, | 10 | ·········˘ |
| That by thy fame all fame shall be suruiued. | 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.