Amour 40
O thou vnkindest fayre! most fayrest shee,In thine eyes tryumph murthering my poore hart,Now doe I sweare by heauens, before we part,My halfe-slaine hart shall take reuenge on thee.Thy mother dyd her lyfe to death resigne,And thou an Angell art, and from aboue;Thy father was a man, that will I proue,Yet thou a Goddesse art, and so diuine.And thus, if thou be not of humaine kinde,A Bastard on both sides needes must thou be;Our Lawes allow no land to basterdy:By natures Lawes we thee a bastard finde.Then hence to heauen, vnkind, for thy childs part:Goe bastard goe, for sure of thence thou art.
Words in this poem
- 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 40 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 40, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-40.html, id L20581.
Form and metre
Amour 40 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 ABBA-CC-DA-DBB sheeA · hartB · partB · theeA · resigne · aboueC · proueC · diuine · kindeD · beA · basterdy · findeD · partB · artB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O thou vnkindest fayre! most fayrest shee, | 9 | ········· |
| In thine eyes tryumph murthering my poore hart, | 10 | ·········· |
| Now doe I sweare by heauens, before we part, | 10 | ·········· |
| My halfe-slaine hart shall take reuenge on thee. | 9 | ········· |
| Thy mother dyd her lyfe to death resigne, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And thou an Angell art, and from aboue; | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Thy father was a man, that will I proue, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Yet thou a Goddesse art, and so diuine. | 9 | ········· |
| And thus, if thou be not of humaine kinde, | 10 | ·········· |
| A Bastard on both sides needes must thou be; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Our Lawes allow no land to basterdy: | 10 | /·˘/······ |
| By natures Lawes we thee a bastard finde. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Then hence to heauen, vnkind, for thy childs part: | 9 | ········· |
| Goe bastard goe, for sure of thence thou art. | 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.