Amour 48
Who list to praise the dayes delicious lyght,Let him compare it to her heauenly eye,The sun-beames to the lustre of her sight;So may the learned like the similie.The mornings Crimson to her lyps alike,The sweet of Eden to her breathes perfume,The fayre Elizia to her fayrer cheeke,Vnto her veynes the onely Phoenix plume.The Angels tresses to her tressed hayre,The Galixia to her more then white.Praysing the fayrest, compare it to my faire,Still naming her in naming all delight.So may he grace all these in her alone,Superlatiue in all comparison.
Words in this poem
- lustre n.
- A period of five years; a lustrum. [L. lustrum: cf. F. lustre.]
- eden n.
- The garden where Adam and Eve first dwelt; hence, a delightful region or residence. [Heb. eden delight, pleasure; also, a place of pleasure, Eden.]
- tressed a.
- Having tresses.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amour 48 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 48, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-48.html, id L20589.
Form and metre
Amour 48 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 A-A--B-B-A-ACC lyghtA · eye · sightA · similie · alike · perfumeB · cheeke · plumeB · hayre · whiteA · faire · delightA · aloneC · comparisonC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Who list to praise the dayes delicious lyght, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Let him compare it to her heauenly eye, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| The sun-beames to the lustre of her sight; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| So may the learned like the similie. | 10 | ····˘····· |
| The mornings Crimson to her lyps alike, | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| The sweet of Eden to her breathes perfume, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| The fayre Elizia to her fayrer cheeke, | 10 | ·········· |
| Vnto her veynes the onely Phoenix plume. | 9 | ····/˘/˘· |
| The Angels tresses to her tressed hayre, | 10 | ·/˘/˘···/˘ |
| The Galixia to her more then white. | 9 | ········· |
| Praysing the fayrest, compare it to my faire, | 11 | /˘···˘/···· |
| Still naming her in naming all delight. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| So may he grace all these in her alone, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Superlatiue in all comparison. | 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.