To Lucasta
Like to the sent'nel stars, I watch all night;For still the grand round of your lightAnd glorious breastAwake in me an east:Nor will my rolling eyes ere know a west.
Now on my down I'm toss'd as on a wave,And my repose is made my grave;Fluttering I lye,Do beat my self and dye,But for a resurrection from your eye.
Ah, my fair murdresse! dost thou cruelly healWith various pains to make me well?Then let me beThy cut anatomie,And in each mangled part my heart you'l see.
Words in this poem
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- resurrection n.
- A rising again; the resumption of vigor. [F. résurrection, L. resurrectio, fr. resurgere, resurrectum, to rise again; pref. re- re- + surgere to rise. See Source.]
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-3.html, id L18589.
Form and metre
To Lucasta is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 27% 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 AAB-B nightA · lightA · breastB · east · westB
- 2 AABBB waveA · graveA · lyeB · dyeB · eyeB
- 3 --A-A heal · well · beA · anatomie · seeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Like to the sent'nel stars, I watch all night; | 10 | ·········· |
| For still the grand round of your light | 8 | ········ |
| And glorious breast | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Awake in me an east: | 6 | ˘/···· |
| Nor will my rolling eyes ere know a west. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Now on my down I'm toss'd as on a wave, | 10 | ·········· |
| And my repose is made my grave; | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Fluttering I lye, | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| Do beat my self and dye, | 6 | ······ |
| But for a resurrection from your eye. | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Ah, my fair murdresse! dost thou cruelly heal | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With various pains to make me well? | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| Then let me be | 4 | ···· |
| Thy cut anatomie, | 6 | ······ |
| And in each mangled part my heart you'l see. | 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.