A Lady with a Falcon on Her Fist. To the Honourable My Cousin a L
This Queen of Prey (now prey to you),Fast to that pirch of ivoryIn silver chaines and silken clue,Hath now made full thy victory:
The swelling admirall of the dreadCold deepe, burnt in thy flames, oh faire!Wast not enough, but thou must leadBound, too, the Princesse of the aire?
Unarm'd of wings and scaly oare,Unhappy crawler on the land,To what heav'n fly'st? div'st to what shoare,That her brave eyes do not command?
Ascend the chariot of the SunFrom her bright pow'r to shelter thee:Her captive (foole) outgases him;Ah, what lost wretches then are we!
Now, proud usurpers on the rightOf sacred beauty, heare your dombe;Recant your sex, your mastry, might;Lower you cannot be or'ecome:
Repent, ye er'e nam'd he or head,For y' are in falcon's monarchy,And in that just dominion bred,In which the nobler is the shee.
Words in this poem
- clue n.
- A ball of thread, yarn, or cord; also, The thread itself. [OE. clewe, clowe, clue, AS. cleowen, cliwen, clywe ball of thread; akin to D. kluwen, OHG. chliwa, chliuwa, G. dim. kleuel, knäuel, and perch. to L. gluma hull,]
- wast
- The second person singular of the verb be, in the indicative mood, imperfect tense; -- now used only in solemn or poetical style.
- princesse a.
- A term applied to a lady's long, close-fitting dress made with waist and skirt in one. [F., a princess.]
- crawler n.
- One who, or that which, crawls; a creeper; a reptile.
- repent a.
- Prostrate and rooting; -- said of stems. Gray. [L. repens, -entis, creeping, p. pr. of repere to creep.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Lady with a Falcon on Her Fist. To the Honourable My Cousin a L is in the public domain. This text is taken from Lucasta, Project Gutenberg ebook #703; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Richard Lovelace, A Lady with a Falcon on Her Fist. To the Honourable My Cousin a L, in Lucasta (1649), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #703, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lovelace-lucasta/a-lady-with-a-falcon-on-her-fist-to-the-honourable-my-cousin.html, id L13016.
Form and metre
A Lady with a Falcon on Her Fist. To the Honourable My Cousin a L is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The commonest rhyme scheme is ABAB, in 2 of the 6 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 A-A- youA · ivory · clueA · victory
- 2 ABAB dreadA · faireB · leadA · aireB
- 3 ABAB oareA · landB · shoareA · commandB
- 4 -A-A sun · theeA · him · weA
- 5 A-A- rightA · dombe · mightA · or'ecome
- 6 A-A- headA · monarchy · bredA · shee
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 |
|---|---|---|
| This Queen of Prey (now prey to you), | 8 | ········ |
| Fast to that pirch of ivory | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| In silver chaines and silken clue, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Hath now made full thy victory: | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| The swelling admirall of the dread | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘··· |
| Cold deepe, burnt in thy flames, oh faire! | 8 | ········ |
| Wast not enough, but thou must lead | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Bound, too, the Princesse of the aire? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Unarm'd of wings and scaly oare, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| Unhappy crawler on the land, | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| To what heav'n fly'st? div'st to what shoare, | 9 | ····˘/··· |
| That her brave eyes do not command? | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Ascend the chariot of the Sun | 9 | ˘/·/˘˘··· |
| From her bright pow'r to shelter thee: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Her captive (foole) outgases him; | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Ah, what lost wretches then are we! | 8 | ········ |
| Now, proud usurpers on the right | 8 | ········ |
| Of sacred beauty, heare your dombe; | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘··· |
| Recant your sex, your mastry, might; | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Lower you cannot be or'ecome: | 9 | /˘·˘/···· |
| Repent, ye er'e nam'd he or head, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| For y' are in falcon's monarchy, | 9 | ····/˘/˘˘ |
| And in that just dominion bred, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| In which the nobler is the shee. | 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.