Chorus. Sing, Touch, &C
V. Touch thy soft lute, and in each gentle threadThe lyon and the panther captive lead.
L. Sing, and in heav'n inthrone deposed love,Whilst angels dance, and fiends in order move.
What sacred charm may this then beIn harmonie,That thus can make the angels wild,The devils mild,And teach low hell to heav'n to swell,And the high heav'n to stoop to hell?
W. Charon! thou slave! thou fooll! thou cavaleer!CHA. A slave! a fool! what traitor's voice I hear?W. Come bring thy boat. CH. No, sir. W. No! sirrah, why?CHA. The blest will disagree, and fiends will mutinyAt thy, at thy unnumbred treachery.W. Villain, I have a pass which who disdains,I will sequester the Elizian plains.CHA. Woes me, ye gentle shades! where shall I dwell?He's come! It is not safe to be in hell.
Thus man, his honor lost, falls on these shelves;Furies and fiends are still true to themselves.
CHA. You must, lost fool, come in. W. Oh, let me in!But now I fear thy boat will sink with my ore-weighty sin.Where, courteous Charon, am I now? CHA. Vile rant!At the gates of thy supreme Judge Rhadamant.
Welcome to rape, to theft, to perjurie,To all the ills thou wert, we canot hope to be;Oh, pitty us condemned! Oh, cease to wooe,And softly, softly breath, least you infect us too.
Words in this poem
- charon n.
- The son of Erebus and Nox, whose office it was to ferry the souls of the dead over the Styx, a river of the infernal regions.
- fooll n.
- A compound of gooseberries scalded and crushed, with cream; -- commonly called gooseberry fool. [Cf. F. fouler to tread, crush. Cf. 1st Foil.]
- sequester v. i.
- To withdraw; to retire.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chorus. Sing, Touch, &C 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, Chorus. Sing, Touch, &C, in Lucasta (1649), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #703, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lovelace-lucasta/chorus-sing-touch-c.html, id L13057.
Form and metre
Chorus. Sing, Touch, &C is 29 lines in 7 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 62% of the lines. 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 AA threadA · leadA
- 2 AA loveA · moveA
- 3 --AABB be · harmonie · wildA · mildA · swellB · hellB
- 4 -----AABB cavaleer · hear · why · mutiny · treachery · disdainsA · plainsA · dwellB · hellB
- 5 AA shelvesA · themselvesA
- 6 AABB inA · sinA · rantB · rhadamantB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| V. Touch thy soft lute, and in each gentle thread | 11 | ········/˘· |
| The lyon and the panther captive lead. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| L. Sing, and in heav'n inthrone deposed love, | 10 | ·····˘/˘/· |
| Whilst angels dance, and fiends in order move. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| What sacred charm may this then be | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| In harmonie, | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| That thus can make the angels wild, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The devils mild, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And teach low hell to heav'n to swell, | 8 | ········ |
| And the high heav'n to stoop to hell? | 8 | ········ |
| W. Charon! thou slave! thou fooll! thou cavaleer! | 12 | /˘/˘········ |
| CHA. A slave! a fool! what traitor's voice I hear? | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| W. Come bring thy boat. CH. No, sir. W. No! sirrah, why? | 15 | /˘·······/˘·/˘· |
| CHA. The blest will disagree, and fiends will mutiny | 11 | ····˘/···/˘ |
| At thy, at thy unnumbred treachery. | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| W. Villain, I have a pass which who disdains, | 12 | /˘/˘······˘/ |
| I will sequester the Elizian plains. | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| CHA. Woes me, ye gentle shades! where shall I dwell? | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| He's come! It is not safe to be in hell. | 10 | ·········· |
| Thus man, his honor lost, falls on these shelves; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Furies and fiends are still true to themselves. | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| CHA. You must, lost fool, come in. W. Oh, let me in! | 13 | ·······/˘···· |
| But now I fear thy boat will sink with my ore-weighty sin. | 14 | ···········/˘· |
| Where, courteous Charon, am I now? CHA. Vile rant! | 11 | ·/˘/˘······ |
| At the gates of thy supreme Judge Rhadamant. | 11 | ·····˘/···· |
| Welcome to rape, to theft, to perjurie, | 10 | /˘········ |
| To all the ills thou wert, we canot hope to be; | 12 | ············ |
| Oh, pitty us condemned! Oh, cease to wooe, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| And softly, softly breath, least you infect us too. | 12 | ·/˘/˘···˘/·· |
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.