Ronsard: The Rose
SEE, Mignonne, hath not the Rose,That this morning did uncloseHer purple mantle to the light,Lost, before the day be dead,The glory of her raiment red,Her colour, bright as yours is bright?
Ah, Mignonne, in how few hours,The petals of her purple flowersAll have faded, fallen, died;Sad Nature, mother ruinous,That seest thy fair child perish thus’Twixt matin song and even tide.
Hear me, my darling, speaking sooth,Gather the fleet flower of your youth,Take ye your pleasure at the best;Be merry ere your beauty flit,For length of days will tarnish itLike roses that were loveliest.
Words in this poem
- mignonne v. t.
- To flatter. Danie
- matin n.
- A French mastiff. [F. matin.]
- sooth a.
- True; faithful; trustworthy. [OE. soth, AS. s, for san; akin to OS. s, OHG. sand, Icel. sannr, Sw. sann, Dan. sand, Skr. sat, sant, real, genuine, present, being; properly p. pr. from a root]
- flit a.
- Nimble; quick; swift. See Fleet.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ronsard: The Rose 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: The Rose, in Ballads and Lyrics of Old France (1872), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #795, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lang-old-france/the-rose.html, id L26896.
Form and metre
Ronsard: The Rose is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABCCB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AABCCB roseA · uncloseA · lightB · deadC · redC · brightB
- 2 AABCCB hoursA · flowersA · diedB · ruinousC · thusC · tideB
- 3 AABCCB soothA · youthA · bestB · flitC · itC · loveliestB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| SEE, Mignonne, hath not the Rose, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| That this morning did unclose | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Her purple mantle to the light, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Lost, before the day be dead, | 7 | ······· |
| The glory of her raiment red, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Her colour, bright as yours is bright? | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Ah, Mignonne, in how few hours, | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| The petals of her purple flowers | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| All have faded, fallen, died; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Sad Nature, mother ruinous, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| That seest thy fair child perish thus | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| ’Twixt matin song and even tide. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Hear me, my darling, speaking sooth, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Gather the fleet flower of your youth, | 8 | /˘··/··· |
| Take ye your pleasure at the best; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Be merry ere your beauty flit, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| For length of days will tarnish it | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Like roses that were loveliest. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
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.