Amour 44
My hart the Anuile where my thoughts doe beate,My words the hammers fashioning my desire,My breast the forge, including all the heate,Loue is the fuell which maintaines the fire:My sighes the bellowes which the flame increaseth,Filling mine eares with noise and nightly groning,Toyling with paine my labour neuer ceaseth,In greeuous passions my woes styll bemoning.Myne eyes with teares against the fire stryuing,With scorching gleed my hart to cynders turneth;But with those drops the coles againe reuyuing,Still more and more vnto my torment burneth.With Sisiphus thus doe I role the stone,And turne the wheele with damned Ixion.
Words in this poem
- fuell v. t.
- To feed with fuel.
- nightly a.
- Of or pertaining to the night, or to every night; happening or done by night, or every night; as, nightly shades; he kept nightly vigils.
- scorching a.
- Burning; parching or shriveling with heat.
- gleed n.
- A live or glowing coal; a glede. Chaucer. [AS. gl, fr. gl to glow as a fire; akin to D. gloed, G. glut, Icel. gl. See Glow, v. i.]
- damned a.
- Sentenced to punishment in a future state; condemned; consigned to perdition.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amour 44 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 44, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-44.html, id L20585.
Form and metre
Amour 44 is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other English sonnets, 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG beateA · desireB · heateA · fireB · increasethC · groningD · ceasethC · bemoningD · stryuingE · turnethF · reuyuingE · burnethF · stoneG · ixionG
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 hart the Anuile where my thoughts doe beate, | 11 | ··········· |
| My words the hammers fashioning my desire, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| My breast the forge, including all the heate, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Loue is the fuell which maintaines the fire: | 11 | ···/˘·˘/·/˘ |
| My sighes the bellowes which the flame increaseth, | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| Filling mine eares with noise and nightly groning, | 11 | /˘·····/˘/˘ |
| Toyling with paine my labour neuer ceaseth, | 11 | ·····/·/˘/˘ |
| In greeuous passions my woes styll bemoning. | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Myne eyes with teares against the fire stryuing, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With scorching gleed my hart to cynders turneth; | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| But with those drops the coles againe reuyuing, | 9 | ········· |
| Still more and more vnto my torment burneth. | 10 | ······/·/˘ |
| With Sisiphus thus doe I role the stone, | 10 | ·········· |
| And turne the wheele with damned Ixion. | 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.