Ronsard: On His Lady’s Waking
MY lady woke upon a morning fair,What time Apollo’s chariot takes the skies,And, fain to fill with arrows from her eyesHis empty quiver, Love was standing there:I saw two apples that her breast doth bearNone such the close of the HesperidesYields; nor hath Venus any such as these,Nor she that had of nursling Mars the care.
Even such a bosom, and so fair it was,Pure as the perfect work of Phidias,That sad Andromeda’s discomfitureLeft bare, when Perseus passed her on a day,And pale as Death for fear of Death she lay,With breast as marble cold, as marble pure.
Words in this poem
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- nursling n.
- One who, or that which, is nursed; an infant; a fondling. [Nurse + -ling.]
- discomfiture n.
- The act of discomfiting, or the state of being discomfited; rout; overthrow; defeat; frustration; confusion and dejection. [OF. desconfiture, F. déconfiture. See Discomfort, v. t., and cf. Comfiture.]
- perseus n.
- A Grecian legendary hero, son of Jupiter and Danaë, who slew the Gorgon Medusa.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ronsard: On His Lady’s Waking 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: On His Lady’s Waking, in Ballads and Lyrics of Old France (1872), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #795, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lang-old-france/on-his-lady-s-waking.html, id L26901.
Form and metre
Ronsard: On His Lady’s Waking 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 ABBAA--A fairA · skiesB · eyesB · thereA · bearA · hesperides · these · careA
- 2 ---AA- was · phidias · discomfiture · dayA · layA · pure
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 |
|---|---|---|
| MY lady woke upon a morning fair, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| What time Apollo’s chariot takes the skies, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| And, fain to fill with arrows from her eyes | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| His empty quiver, Love was standing there: | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| I saw two apples that her breast doth bear | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| None such the close of the Hesperides | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Yields; nor hath Venus any such as these, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Nor she that had of nursling Mars the care. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Even such a bosom, and so fair it was, | 10 | /··/˘····· |
| Pure as the perfect work of Phidias, | 9 | ···˘/···· |
| That sad Andromeda’s discomfiture | 10 | ··˘/˘˘˘/˘˘ |
| Left bare, when Perseus passed her on a day, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And pale as Death for fear of Death she lay, | 10 | ·········· |
| With breast as marble cold, as marble pure. | 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.