De Suo in Lesbiam Amore. Ep. 88
Nulla potest mulier tantum se dicere amatamVere, quantum a me Lesbia amata mea est;Nulla fides ullo fuit unquam faedere tanta,Quanta in amore suo ex parte reperta mea est.
Words in this poem
- vere v. i.
- To change direction; to turn; to shift; as, wind veers to the west or north. [F. virer (cf. Sp. virar, birar), LL. virare; perhaps fr. L. vibrare to brandish, vibrate (cf. Vibrate); or cf. L. viriae armlets, bracelets, viriola a little br]
- quantum n.
- Quantity; amount. [L., neuter of quantus how great, how much. See Quantity,]
- fides n.
- Faith personified as a goddess; the goddess of faith. [L., faith.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
De Suo in Lesbiam Amore. Ep. 88 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, De Suo in Lesbiam Amore. Ep. 88, in Lucasta (1649), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #703, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lovelace-lucasta/de-suo-in-lesbiam-amore-ep-88.html, id L13111.
Form and metre
De Suo in Lesbiam Amore. Ep. 88 is 4 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 13.8 syllables.
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 amatam · estA · tanta · estA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Nulla potest mulier tantum se dicere amatam | 16 | ····/˘˘···/····· |
| Vere, quantum a me Lesbia amata mea est; | 13 | ·/˘········˘/ |
| Nulla fides ullo fuit unquam faedere tanta, | 12 | ············ |
| Quanta in amore suo ex parte reperta mea est. | 14 | ···/˘·······˘/ |
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.