Ronsard: His Lady’s Death
TWAIN that were foes, while Mary lived, are fled;One laurel-crowned abides in heaven, and oneBeneath the earth has fared, a fallen sun,A light of love among the loveless dead.The first is Chastity, that vanquishedThe archer Love, that held joint emperyWith the sweet beauty that made war on me,When laughter of lips with laughing eyes was wed.
Their strife the Fates have closed, with stern control,The earth holds her fair body, and her soulAn angel with glad angels triumpheth;Love has no more that he can do; desireIs buried, and my heart a faded fire,And for Death’s sake, I am in love with Death.
Words in this poem
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- loveless a.
- Void of love; void of tenderness or kindness. Milton. Shelton.
- empery n.
- Empire; sovereignty; dominion. [L. imperium, influenced by OF. emperie, empire. See Empire.]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ronsard: His Lady’s Death is in the public domain. This text is taken from Ballads and Lyrics of Old France, with Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #795, the Andrew Lang translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Various, Ronsard: His Lady’s Death, in Ballads and Lyrics of Old France (1872), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #795, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lang-old-france/his-lady-s-death.html, id L26902.
Form and metre
Ronsard: His Lady’s Death is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 ABBA---A fledA · oneB · sunB · deadA · vanquished · empery · me · wedA
- 2 AABCCB controlA · soulA · triumphethB · desireC · fireC · deathB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| TWAIN that were foes, while Mary lived, are fled; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| One laurel-crowned abides in heaven, and one | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/·· |
| Beneath the earth has fared, a fallen sun, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A light of love among the loveless dead. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The first is Chastity, that vanquished | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘˘ |
| The archer Love, that held joint empery | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| With the sweet beauty that made war on me, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| When laughter of lips with laughing eyes was wed. | 11 | ·/˘···/˘··· |
| Their strife the Fates have closed, with stern control, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The earth holds her fair body, and her soul | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| An angel with glad angels triumpheth; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| Love has no more that he can do; desire | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Is buried, and my heart a faded fire, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| And for Death’s sake, I am in love with Death. | 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.