To Lucasta
I laugh and sing, but cannot tellWhether the folly on't sounds well;But then I groan,Methinks, in tune;Whilst grief, despair and fear dance to the airOf my despised prayer.
A pretty antick love does this,Then strikes a galliard with a kiss;As in the endThe chords they rend;So you but with a touch from your fair handTurn all to saraband.
Words in this poem
- methinks v.
- It seems to me; I think. See Me. [AS. þyncan to seem, me þynceedh, me þuhte, OE. me thinketh, me thoughte; akin to G. dünken to seem, denken to think, and E. think. See Me, and Think.]
- galliard a.
- Gay; brisk; active. [OE., fr. F. gaillard, perh. of Celtic origin; cf. Ir. & Gael. galach valiant, or AS. gagol, geagl, wanton, lascivious.]
- saraband n.
- A slow Spanish dance of Saracenic origin, to an air in triple time; also, the air itself. [F. sarabande, Sp. zarabanda, fr. Per. serbend a song.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Lucasta 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 Lucasta, in Lucasta (1649), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #703, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lovelace-lucasta/to-lucasta-2.html, id L18588.
Form and metre
To Lucasta is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 AA--BB tellA · wellA · groan · tune · airB · prayerB
- 2 AABBCC thisA · kissA · endB · rendB · handC · sarabandC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I laugh and sing, but cannot tell | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Whether the folly on't sounds well; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But then I groan, | 4 | ···· |
| Methinks, in tune; | 4 | ˘/·· |
| Whilst grief, despair and fear dance to the air | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Of my despised prayer. | 5 | ··˘/· |
| A pretty antick love does this, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Then strikes a galliard with a kiss; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| As in the end | 4 | ···· |
| The chords they rend; | 4 | ···· |
| So you but with a touch from your fair hand | 10 | ·········· |
| Turn all to saraband. | 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.