To Sir Walter Aston, Knight of the Honourable Order of the Bath, and My Most Worthy Patron
I will not striue m' inuention to inforce,With needlesse words your eyes to entertaine,T' obserue the formall ordinarie courseThat euerie one so vulgarly doth faine:Our interchanged and deliberate choise,Is with more firme and true election sorted,Then stands in censure of the common voice.That with light humor fondly is transported:Nor take I patterne of another's praise,Then what my pen may constantly avow.Nor walke more publique nor obscurer waiesThen vertue bids, and iudgement will allow;So shall my tone, and best endeuours serue you,And still shall studie, still so to deserue you.Michaell Drayton.
Words in this poem
- formall a.
- Belonging to the form, shape, frame, external appearance, or organization of a thing. [L. formalis: cf. F. formel.]
- vulgarly adv.
- In a vulgar manner.
- fondly adv.
- Foolishly. Verstegan (1673).
- avow v. t.
- To bind, or to devote, by a vow. Wyclif. [OF. avouer, fr. LL. votare to vow, fr. L. votun. See Vote, n.]
- obscurer n.
- One who, or that which, obscures.
- 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
To Sir Walter Aston, Knight of the Honourable Order of the Bath, and My Most Worthy Patron 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, To Sir Walter Aston, Knight of the Honourable Order of the Bath, and My Most Worthy Patron, in Minor Poems (1594–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17873, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drayton-minor-poems/to-sir-walter-aston-knight-of-the-honourable-order-of-the-bath-and-my-most-worthy-patron.html, id L20626.
Form and metre
To Sir Walter Aston, Knight of the Honourable Order of the Bath, and My Most Worthy Patron is 15 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 ABAB----CDCDEE- inforceA · entertaineB · courseA · faineB · choise · sorted · voice · transported · praiseC · avowD · waiesC · allowD · youE · youE · drayton
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 will not striue m' inuention to inforce, | 11 | ··········· |
| With needlesse words your eyes to entertaine, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| T' obserue the formall ordinarie course | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| That euerie one so vulgarly doth faine: | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Our interchanged and deliberate choise, | 10 | /·˘/·˘/˘·· |
| Is with more firme and true election sorted, | 11 | ······˘/˘/˘ |
| Then stands in censure of the common voice. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That with light humor fondly is transported: | 11 | ···/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Nor take I patterne of another's praise, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Then what my pen may constantly avow. | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘/ |
| Nor walke more publique nor obscurer waies | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Then vertue bids, and iudgement will allow; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| So shall my tone, and best endeuours serue you, | 10 | ·········· |
| And still shall studie, still so to deserue you. | 11 | ··········· |
| Michaell Drayton. | 4 | /˘/˘ |
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