Amour 42
Plac'd in the forlorne hope of all dispayreAgainst the Forte where Beauties Army lies,Assayld with death, yet armed with gastly feare,Loe! thus my loue, my lyfe, my fortune tryes.Wounded with Arrowes from thy lightning eyes,My tongue in payne my harts counsels bewraying,My rebell thought for me in Ambushe lyes,To my lyues foe her Chieftaine still betraying.Record my loue in Ocean waues (vnkind)Cast my desarts into the open ayre,Commit my words vnto the fleeting wind,Cancell my name, and blot it with dispayre;So shall I bee as I had neuer beene,Nor my disgraces to the world be seene.
Words in this poem
- forte n.
- The strong point; that in which one excels. fort"a The construction of a fable seems by no means the forte of our modern poetical writers. Jeffrey. [IT. forte: cf. F. fort. See Fort.]
- rebell a.
- Pertaining to rebels or rebellion; acting in revolt; rebellious; as, rebel troops. [F. rebelle, fr. L. rebellis. See Rebel, v. t.]
- cancell n.
- An inclosure; a boundary; a limit. [See Cancel, v. i., and cf. Chancel.]
- 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 42 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 42, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-42.html, id L20583.
Form and metre
Amour 42 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 AB-BBCBCDADAEE dispayreA · liesB · feare · tryesB · eyesB · bewrayingC · lyesB · betrayingC · vnkindD · ayreA · windD · dispayreA · beeneE · seeneE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Plac'd in the forlorne hope of all dispayre | 10 | ·········· |
| Against the Forte where Beauties Army lies, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘/˘· |
| Assayld with death, yet armed with gastly feare, | 10 | ·········· |
| Loe! thus my loue, my lyfe, my fortune tryes. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Wounded with Arrowes from thy lightning eyes, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| My tongue in payne my harts counsels bewraying, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| My rebell thought for me in Ambushe lyes, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| To my lyues foe her Chieftaine still betraying. | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Record my loue in Ocean waues (vnkind) | 9 | ˘/···/˘·· |
| Cast my desarts into the open ayre, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Commit my words vnto the fleeting wind, | 9 | ˘/····/˘· |
| Cancell my name, and blot it with dispayre; | 10 | /˘········ |
| So shall I bee as I had neuer beene, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Nor my disgraces to the world be seene. | 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.