Sonet 25
O why should nature nigardly restraine,The Sotherne Nations relish not our tongue,Else should my lines glide on the waues of Rhene,And crowne the Pirens with my liuing song;But bounded thus to Scotland get you forth:Thence take you wing vnto the Orcades,There let my verse get glory in the North,Making my sighs to thawe the frozen seas,And let the Bards within the Irish Ile,To whom my Muse with fiery wings shall passe,Call backe the stifneckd rebels from exile,And molifie the slaughtering Galliglasse:And when my flowing numbers they rehearse,Let Wolues and Bears be charmed with my verse.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- passe a.
- Past; gone by; hence, past one's prime; worn; faded; as, a passée belle. Ld. Lytton. [F.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonet 25 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, Sonet 25, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/sonet-25.html, id L20601.
Form and metre
Sonet 25 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-BCBCDD restraine · tongue · rhene · song · forthA · orcades · northA · seas · ileB · passeC · exileB · galliglasseC · rehearseD · verseD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O why should nature nigardly restraine, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The Sotherne Nations relish not our tongue, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·/· |
| Else should my lines glide on the waues of Rhene, | 10 | ·········· |
| And crowne the Pirens with my liuing song; | 9 | ········· |
| But bounded thus to Scotland get you forth: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Thence take you wing vnto the Orcades, | 8 | ········ |
| There let my verse get glory in the North, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Making my sighs to thawe the frozen seas, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| And let the Bards within the Irish Ile, | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| To whom my Muse with fiery wings shall passe, | 11 | ·····/˘···/ |
| Call backe the stifneckd rebels from exile, | 10 | ·····˘/·/· |
| And molifie the slaughtering Galliglasse: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And when my flowing numbers they rehearse, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Let Wolues and Bears be charmed with my verse. | 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.