On Billinda
Wanton Billinda loudly does complain,I've chang'd my Love of late into disdain:Calls me unconstant, cause I now adoreThe chast Marcella, that lov'd her before.Sin or Dishonour, me as well may blame,That I repent, or do avoid a shame.
Words in this poem
- unconstant a.
- Not constant; inconstant; fickle; changeable.
- adore v. t.
- To worship with profound reverence; to pay divine honors to; to honor as deity or as divine. [OE. aouren, anouren, adoren, OF. aorer, adorer, F. adorer, fr. L. adorare; ad + orare to speak, pray, os, oris, mouth. In OE. confused with honor, the French pr]
- dishonour n.
- Lack of honor; disgrace; ignominy; shame; reproach. [OE. deshonour, dishonour, OF. deshonor, deshonur, F. déshonneur; pref. des- (L. dis-) + honor, honur, F. honneur, fr. L. honor. See Honor.]
- repent a.
- Prostrate and rooting; -- said of stems. Gray. [L. repens, -entis, creeping, p. pr. of repere to creep.]
- avoid v. t.
- To empty. Wyclif. [OF. esvuidier, es (L. ex) + vuidier, voidier, to empty. See Void, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On Billinda is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems (1686), Project Gutenberg ebook #41076; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Anne Killigrew, On Billinda, in Poems (1686) (1686), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #41076, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/killigrew-poems/on-billinda.html, id L09194.
Form and metre
On Billinda is 6 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABBCC complainA · disdainA · adoreB · beforeB · blameC · shameC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wanton Billinda loudly does complain, | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| I've chang'd my Love of late into disdain: | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Calls me unconstant, cause I now adore | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| The chast Marcella, that lov'd her before. | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Sin or Dishonour, me as well may blame, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| That I repent, or do avoid a shame. | 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.