Lucasta Laughing
Heark, how she laughs aloud,Although the world put on its shrowd:Wept at by the fantastic crowd,Who cry: one drop, let fallFrom her, might save the universal ball.She laughs againAt our ridiculous pain;And at our merry miseryShe laughs, until she cry.Sages, forbearThat ill-contrived tear,Although your fearDoth barricado hope from your soft ear.That which still makes her mirth to flow,Is our sinister-handed woe,Which downwards on its head doth go,And, ere that it is sown, doth grow.This makes her spleen contract,And her just pleasure feast:For the unjustest actIs still the pleasant'st jest.
Words in this poem
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
- jest n.
- A deed; an action; a gest. [OE. jeste, geste, deed, action, story, tale, OF. geste, LL. gesta, orig., exploits, neut. pl. from L. gestus, p. p. of gerere to bear, carry, accomplish, perfor]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lucasta Laughing 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, Lucasta Laughing, in Lucasta (1649), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #703, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lovelace-lucasta/lucasta-laughing.html, id L13029.
Form and metre
Lucasta Laughing is 21 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AAABBCC--DDDDEEEEF-F- aloudA · shrowdA · crowdA · fallB · ballB · againC · painC · misery · cry · forbearD · tearD · fearD · earD · flowE · woeE · goE · growE · contractF · feast · actF · jest
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Heark, how she laughs aloud, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Although the world put on its shrowd: | 8 | ········ |
| Wept at by the fantastic crowd, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Who cry: one drop, let fall | 6 | ······ |
| From her, might save the universal ball. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| She laughs again | 4 | ··˘/ |
| At our ridiculous pain; | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘˘· |
| And at our merry misery | 9 | ··/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| She laughs, until she cry. | 6 | ······ |
| Sages, forbear | 4 | /˘˘/ |
| That ill-contrived tear, | 5 | ··˘/· |
| Although your fear | 4 | ···· |
| Doth barricado hope from your soft ear. | 10 | ·········· |
| That which still makes her mirth to flow, | 8 | ········ |
| Is our sinister-handed woe, | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘/˘· |
| Which downwards on its head doth go, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And, ere that it is sown, doth grow. | 8 | ········ |
| This makes her spleen contract, | 6 | ····/· |
| And her just pleasure feast: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| For the unjustest act | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Is still the pleasant'st jest. | 6 | ······ |
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.