Amour 41
Rare of-spring of my thoughts, my dearest Loue,Begot by fancy on sweet hope exhortiue,In whom all purenes with perfection stroue,Hurt in the Embryon makes my ioyes abhortiue.And you, my sighes, Symtomas of my woe,The dolefull Anthems of my endelesse care,Lyke idle Ecchoes euer answering; so,The mournfull accents of my loues dispayre.And thou, Conceite, the shadow of my blisse,Declyning with the setting of my sunne,Springing with that, and fading straight with this,Now hast thou end, and now thou wast begun:Now was thy pryme, and loe! is now thy waine;Now wast thou borne, now in thy cradle slayne.
Words in this poem
- dolefull a.
- Full of dole or grief; expressing or exciting sorrow; sorrowful; sad; dismal.
- mournfull a.
- Full of sorrow; expressing, or intended to express, sorrow; mourning; grieving; sad; also, causing sorrow; saddening; grievous; as, a mournful person; mournful looks, tones, loss.
- fading n.
- An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- wast
- The second person singular of the verb be, in the indicative mood, imperfect tense; -- now used only in solemn or poetical style.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amour 41 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 41, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-41.html, id L20582.
Form and metre
Amour 41 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 ABABCDCD-E-EFF loueA · exhortiueB · stroueA · abhortiueB · woeC · careD · soC · dispayreD · blisse · sunneE · this · begunE · waineF · slayneF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Rare of-spring of my thoughts, my dearest Loue, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Begot by fancy on sweet hope exhortiue, | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| In whom all purenes with perfection stroue, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Hurt in the Embryon makes my ioyes abhortiue. | 11 | ···/˘˘····· |
| And you, my sighes, Symtomas of my woe, | 10 | ·········· |
| The dolefull Anthems of my endelesse care, | 11 | ·/˘/˘······ |
| Lyke idle Ecchoes euer answering; so, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘˘· |
| The mournfull accents of my loues dispayre. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And thou, Conceite, the shadow of my blisse, | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Declyning with the setting of my sunne, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Springing with that, and fading straight with this, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Now hast thou end, and now thou wast begun: | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Now was thy pryme, and loe! is now thy waine; | 10 | ·········· |
| Now wast thou borne, now in thy cradle slayne. | 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.