Amour 50
When I first ended, then I first began;The more I trauell, further from my rest;Where most I lost, there most of all I wan;Pyned with hunger, rysing from a feast.Mee thinks I flee, yet want I legs to goe,Wise in conceite, in acte a very sot;Rauisht with ioy amidst a hell of woe,What most I seeme, that surest I am not.I build my hopes a world aboue the skye,Yet with a Mole I creepe into the earth:In plenty am I staru'd with penury,And yet I serfet in the greatest dearth.I haue, I want, dispayre, and yet desire,Burn'd in a Sea of Ice, and drown'd amidst a fire.
Words in this poem
- amidst prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- penury n.
- Absence of resources; want; privation; indigence; extreme poverty; destitution. [L. penuria; cf. Gr. pénurie.]
- dearth n.
- Scarcity which renders dear; want; lack; specifically, lack of food on account of failure of crops; famine. [OE. derthe, fr. dere. See Dear.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amour 50 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 50, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/amour-50.html, id L20591.
Form and metre
Amour 50 is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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-BCC began · rest · wan · feast · goeA · sot · woeA · not · skye · earthB · penury · dearthB · desireC · fireC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When I first ended, then I first began; | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| The more I trauell, further from my rest; | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Where most I lost, there most of all I wan; | 10 | ·········· |
| Pyned with hunger, rysing from a feast. | 10 | ·˘·/˘····· |
| Mee thinks I flee, yet want I legs to goe, | 10 | ·········· |
| Wise in conceite, in acte a very sot; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Rauisht with ioy amidst a hell of woe, | 9 | ···˘/···· |
| What most I seeme, that surest I am not. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I build my hopes a world aboue the skye, | 9 | ········· |
| Yet with a Mole I creepe into the earth: | 10 | ·········· |
| In plenty am I staru'd with penury, | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘˘ |
| And yet I serfet in the greatest dearth. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I haue, I want, dispayre, and yet desire, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Burn'd in a Sea of Ice, and drown'd amidst a fire. | 12 | ········˘/·/ |
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.