Sonnet 27
I heare some say, this man is not in loue,Who, can he loue? a likely thing they say:Reade but his verse, and it will easily proue;O iudge not rashly (gentle Sir) I pray,Because I loosely tryfle in this sort,As one that faine his sorrowes would beguile:You now suppose me, all this time in sport,And please your selfe with this conceit the while.You shallow censures; sometime see you notIn greatest perills some men pleasant be,Where fame by death is onely to be got,They resolute, so stands the case with me;Where other men, in depth of passion cry,I laugh at fortune, as in iest to die.
Words in this poem
- sometime adv.
- At a past time indefinitely referred to; once; formerly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 27 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, Sonnet 27, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/sonnet-27.html, id L20613.
Form and metre
Sonnet 27 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 93%).
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 loueA · sayB · proueA · prayB · sortC · beguileD · sportC · whileD · notE · beF · gotE · meF · cryG · dieG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I heare some say, this man is not in loue, | 10 | ·········· |
| Who, can he loue? a likely thing they say: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Reade but his verse, and it will easily proue; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| O iudge not rashly (gentle Sir) I pray, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Because I loosely tryfle in this sort, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| As one that faine his sorrowes would beguile: | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| You now suppose me, all this time in sport, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| And please your selfe with this conceit the while. | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| You shallow censures; sometime see you not | 10 | ·/˘/˘/···· |
| In greatest perills some men pleasant be, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Where fame by death is onely to be got, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| They resolute, so stands the case with me; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Where other men, in depth of passion cry, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| I laugh at fortune, as in iest to die. | 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.