Ode I
You are deceiv'd; I sooner may, dull fair,Seat a dark Moor in Cassiopea's chair,Or on the glow-worm's uselesse lightBestow the watching flames of night,Or give the rose's breathTo executed death,Ere the bright hiewOf verse to you;It is just Heaven on beauty stamps a fame,And we, alas! its triumphs but proclaim.
About this text
Ode I 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, Ode I, in Lucasta (1649), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #703, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lovelace-lucasta/ode-i.html, id L13045.
Form and metre
Ode I is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 30% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCCDDEE fairA · chairA · lightB · nightB · breathC · deathC · hiewD · youD · fameE · proclaimE
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| You are deceiv'd; I sooner may, dull fair, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Seat a dark Moor in Cassiopea's chair, | 9 | ········· |
| Or on the glow-worm's uselesse light | 9 | ········· |
| Bestow the watching flames of night, | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| Or give the rose's breath | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To executed death, | 6 | ·/˘·˘· |
| Ere the bright hiew | 4 | ···· |
| Of verse to you; | 4 | ···· |
| It is just Heaven on beauty stamps a fame, | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| And we, alas! its triumphs but proclaim. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘/ |
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.