Sonnet 6
How many paltry, foolish, painted things,That now in Coaches trouble eu'ry Street,Shall be forgotten, whom no Poet sings,Ere they be well wrap'd in their winding Sheet?Where I to thee Eternitie shall giue,When nothing else remayneth of these dayes,And Queenes hereafter shall be glad to liueVpon the Almes of thy superfluous prayse;Virgins and Matrons reading these my Rimes,Shall be so much delighted with thy story,That they shall grieve, they liu'd not in these Times,To haue seene thee, their Sexes onely glory:So shalt thou flye aboue the vulgar Throng,Still to suruiue in my immortall Song.
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,]
- hereafter adv.
- In time to come; in some future time or state. [AS. hræfter.]
- delighted a.
- Endowed with delight.
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- immortall a.
- Not mortal; exempt from liability to die; undying; imperishable; lasting forever; having unlimited, or eternal, existance. [L. immortalis; pref. im- not + mortalis mortal: cf. F. immortel. See Mortal, and cf. Immortelle.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 6 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 6, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/sonnet-6.html, id L20628.
Form and metre
Sonnet 6 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 91%).
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 thingsA · streetB · singsA · sheetB · giueC · dayesD · liueC · prayseD · rimesE · storyF · timesE · gloryF · throngG · songG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How many paltry, foolish, painted things, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| That now in Coaches trouble eu'ry Street, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Shall be forgotten, whom no Poet sings, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Ere they be well wrap'd in their winding Sheet? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Where I to thee Eternitie shall giue, | 10 | ·········· |
| When nothing else remayneth of these dayes, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And Queenes hereafter shall be glad to liue | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Vpon the Almes of thy superfluous prayse; | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Virgins and Matrons reading these my Rimes, | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Shall be so much delighted with thy story, | 11 | ····˘/˘··/˘ |
| That they shall grieve, they liu'd not in these Times, | 10 | ·········· |
| To haue seene thee, their Sexes onely glory: | 11 | ·····/˘/˘/˘ |
| So shalt thou flye aboue the vulgar Throng, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Still to suruiue in my immortall Song. | 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.