To Ellinda, That Lately I Have Not Written
If in me anger, or disdaineIn you, or both, made me refraineFrom th' noble intercourse of verse,That only vertuous thoughts rehearse;Then, chaste Ellinda, might you feareThe sacred vowes that I did sweare.
But if alone some pious thoughtMe to an inward sadnesse brought,Thinking to breath your soule too welle,My tongue was charmed with that spell;And left it (since there was no roomeTo voyce your worth enough) strooke dumbe.
So then this silence doth revealNo thought of negligence, but zeal:For, as in adoration,This is love's true devotion;Children and fools the words repeat,But anch'rites pray in tears and sweat.
Words in this poem
- vertuous a.
- Virtuous; powerful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Ellinda, That Lately I Have Not Written 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, To Ellinda, That Lately I Have Not Written, in Lucasta (1649), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #703, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lovelace-lucasta/to-ellinda-that-lately-i-have-not-written.html, id L13004.
Form and metre
To Ellinda, That Lately I Have Not Written is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% 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 AABBCC disdaineA · refraineA · verseB · rehearseB · feareC · sweareC
- 2 AABB-- thoughtA · broughtA · welleB · spellB · roome · dumbe
- 3 AA---- revealA · zealA · adoration · devotion · repeat · sweat
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If in me anger, or disdaine | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In you, or both, made me refraine | 8 | ········ |
| From th' noble intercourse of verse, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| That only vertuous thoughts rehearse; | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘·˘/ |
| Then, chaste Ellinda, might you feare | 8 | ········ |
| The sacred vowes that I did sweare. | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| But if alone some pious thought | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Me to an inward sadnesse brought, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thinking to breath your soule too welle, | 8 | /˘······ |
| My tongue was charmed with that spell; | 7 | ······· |
| And left it (since there was no roome | 8 | ········ |
| To voyce your worth enough) strooke dumbe. | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| So then this silence doth reveal | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| No thought of negligence, but zeal: | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| For, as in adoration, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| This is love's true devotion; | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Children and fools the words repeat, | 8 | /˘····˘/ |
| But anch'rites pray in tears and sweat. | 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.