Sonnet 36: Cupid Coniured
Thou purblind Boy, since thou hast been so slackeTo wound her Heart, whose Eyes haue wounded me,And suff'red her to glory in my Wracke,Thus to my aid, I lastly coniure thee;By Hellish Styx (by which the THUND'RER sweares)By thy faire Mothers vnauoided Power,By HECAT'S Names, by PROSERPINE'S sad Teares,When she was rapt to the infernall Bower,By thine own loued PSYCHES, by the FiresSpent on thine Altars, flaming vp to Heau'n;By all the Louers Sighes, Vowes, and Desires,By all the Wounds that euer thou hast giu'n;I coniure thee by all that I haue nam'd,To make her loue, or CUPID be thou damn'd.
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- lastly adv.
- In the last place; in conclusion.
- styx n.
- The principal river of the lower world, which had to be crossed in passing to the regions of the dead.
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- infernall a.
- Of or pertaining to or suitable for the lower regions, inhabited, according to the ancients, by the dead; pertaining to Pluto's realm of the dead, the Tartarus of the ancients. [F. infernal, L. infernalis, fr. infernus that which lies beneath, the lower. See Inferior.]
- cupid
- The god of love, son of Venus; usually represented as a naked, winged boy with bow and arrow. [L.Cupido, fr. cupido desire, desire of love, fr. cupidus. See Cupidity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 36: Cupid Coniured 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 36: Cupid Coniured, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/sonnet-36-cupid-coniured.html, id L20633.
Form and metre
Sonnet 36: Cupid Coniured is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 ABABCDCDE-E--- slackeA · meB · wrackeA · theeB · swearesC · powerD · tearesC · bowerD · firesE · heau'n · desiresE · giu'n · nam'd · damn'd
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thou purblind Boy, since thou hast been so slacke | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| To wound her Heart, whose Eyes haue wounded me, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And suff'red her to glory in my Wracke, | 10 | ··˘··/˘··· |
| Thus to my aid, I lastly coniure thee; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| By Hellish Styx (by which the THUND'RER sweares) | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| By thy faire Mothers vnauoided Power, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| By HECAT'S Names, by PROSERPINE'S sad Teares, | 10 | ·········· |
| When she was rapt to the infernall Bower, | 11 | ······˘/˘/˘ |
| By thine own loued PSYCHES, by the Fires | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| Spent on thine Altars, flaming vp to Heau'n; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| By all the Louers Sighes, Vowes, and Desires, | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| By all the Wounds that euer thou hast giu'n; | 9 | ········· |
| I coniure thee by all that I haue nam'd, | 10 | ·········· |
| To make her loue, or CUPID be thou damn'd. | 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.