Amour 46
Sweete secrecie, what tongue can tell thy worth?What mortall pen sufficiently can prayse thee?What curious Pensill serues to lim thee forth?What Muse hath power aboue thy height to raise thee?Strong locke of kindnesse, Closet of loues store,Harts Methridate, the soules preseruatiue;O vertue! which all vertues doe adore,Cheefe good, from whom all good things wee deriue.O rare effect! true bond of friendships measure,Conceite of Angels, which all wisdom teachest;O, richest Casket of all heauenly treasure,In secret silence which such wonders preachest.O purest mirror! wherein men may seeThe liuely Image of Diuinitie.
Words in this poem
- mortall a.
- Subject to death; destined to die; as, man is mortal. [F. mortel, L. mortalis, from mors, mortis, death, fr. moriri 8die; akin to E. murder. See Murder, and cf. Filemot, Mere a lake, Mortgage.]
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
- adore v. t.
- To worship with profound reverence; to pay divine honors to; to honor as deity or as divine. [OE. aouren, anouren, adoren, OF. aorer, adorer, F. adorer, fr. L. adorare; ad + orare to speak, pray, os, oris, mouth. In OE. confused with honor, the French pr]
- casket v. t.
- To put into, or preserve in, a casket.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amour 46 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 46, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-46.html, id L20587.
Form and metre
Amour 46 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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-ABCBCDEDEA- worth · theeA · forth · theeA · storeB · preseruatiueC · adoreB · deriueC · measureD · teachestE · treasureD · preachestE · seeA · diuinitie
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sweete secrecie, what tongue can tell thy worth? | 10 | ·········· |
| What mortall pen sufficiently can prayse thee? | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| What curious Pensill serues to lim thee forth? | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| What Muse hath power aboue thy height to raise thee? | 10 | ···/······ |
| Strong locke of kindnesse, Closet of loues store, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Harts Methridate, the soules preseruatiue; | 9 | ········· |
| O vertue! which all vertues doe adore, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Cheefe good, from whom all good things wee deriue. | 9 | ········· |
| O rare effect! true bond of friendships measure, | 11 | ··˘/···/˘/˘ |
| Conceite of Angels, which all wisdom teachest; | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| O, richest Casket of all heauenly treasure, | 11 | ·/˘/˘····/˘ |
| In secret silence which such wonders preachest. | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/˘/˘ |
| O purest mirror! wherein men may see | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| The liuely Image of Diuinitie. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
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.