Sonnet 63: To the High and Mighty Prince, James, King of Scots
Not thy graue Counsells, nor thy Subiects loue,Nor all that famous Scottish royaltie,Or what thy soueraigne greatnes may approue,Others in vaine doe but historifie,When thine owne glorie from thy selfe doth spring,As though thou did'st, all meaner prayses scorne:Of Kings a Poet, and the Poets King,They Princes, but thou Prophets do'st adorne;Whilst others by their Empires are renown'd,Thou do'st enrich thy Scotland with renowne,And Kings can but with Diadems be crown'd,But with thy Laurell, thou doo'st crowne thy Crowne;That they whose pens, euen life to Kings doe giue,In thee a King, shall seeke them selues to liue.
Words in this poem
- laurell n.
- An evergreen shrub, of the genus Laurus (L. nobilis), having aromatic leaves of a lanceolate shape, with clusters of small, yellowish white flowers in their axils; -- called also sweet bay. [OE. lorel, laurer, lorer, OF. lorier, laurier, F. laurier, (assumed) LL. Laurarius, fr. L. laurus.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet 63: To the High and Mighty Prince, James, King of Scots 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 63: To the High and Mighty Prince, James, King of Scots, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/sonnet-63-to-the-high-and-mighty-prince-james-king-of-scots.html, id L20617.
Form and metre
Sonnet 63: To the High and Mighty Prince, James, King of Scots 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 90%).
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 · royaltieB · approueA · historifieB · springC · scorneD · kingC · adorneD · renown'dE · renowneF · crown'dE · crowneF · giueG · liueG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Not thy graue Counsells, nor thy Subiects loue, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Nor all that famous Scottish royaltie, | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| Or what thy soueraigne greatnes may approue, | 8 | ········ |
| Others in vaine doe but historifie, | 10 | /˘········ |
| When thine owne glorie from thy selfe doth spring, | 10 | ·········· |
| As though thou did'st, all meaner prayses scorne: | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Of Kings a Poet, and the Poets King, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| They Princes, but thou Prophets do'st adorne; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Whilst others by their Empires are renown'd, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Thou do'st enrich thy Scotland with renowne, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| And Kings can but with Diadems be crown'd, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But with thy Laurell, thou doo'st crowne thy Crowne; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| That they whose pens, euen life to Kings doe giue, | 10 | ·········· |
| In thee a King, shall seeke them selues to liue. | 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.