The Gentle Lady
So beautiful, so dainty-sweet,So like a lyre's delightful touch--A beauty perfect, ripe, completeThat art's own hand could only smutchAnd nature's self not better much.
So beautiful, so purely wrought,Like a fair missal penned with hymns,So gentle, so surpassing thought--A beauteous soul in lovely limbs,A lantern that an angel trims.
So simple-sweet, without a sin,Like gentle music gently timed,Like rhyme-words coming aptly in,To round a mooned poem rhymedTo tunes the laughing bells have chimed.
Words in this poem
- dainty n.
- Value; estimation; the gratification or pleasure taken in anything. [OE. deinie, dainte, deintie, deyntee, OF. deintié delicacy, orig., dignity, honor, fr. L. dignitas, fr. dignus worthy. See Deign, and cf. Dignity.]
- missal n.
- The book containing the service of the Mass for the entire year; a Mass book. [LL. missale, liber missalis, from missa mass: cf. F. missel. See 1st Mass.]
- penned a.
- Winged; having plumes.
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- aptly adv.
- In an apt or suitable manner; fitly; properly; pertinently; appropriately; readily.
- mooned a.
- Of or resembling the moon; symbolized by the moon.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Gentle Lady is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Story of a Round-House, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #40717; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Masefield, The Gentle Lady, in The Story of a Round-House, and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #40717, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masefield-round-house/the-gentle-lady.html, id L25007.
Form and metre
The Gentle Lady is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABABB sweetA · touchB · completeA · smutchB · muchB
- 2 ABABB wroughtA · hymnsB · thoughtA · limbsB · trimsB
- 3 ABABB sinA · timedB · inA · rhymedB · chimedB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| So beautiful, so dainty-sweet, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| So like a lyre's delightful touch-- | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| A beauty perfect, ripe, complete | 8 | ·/˘/··˘/ |
| That art's own hand could only smutch | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And nature's self not better much. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| So beautiful, so purely wrought, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Like a fair missal penned with hymns, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| So gentle, so surpassing thought-- | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| A beauteous soul in lovely limbs, | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
| A lantern that an angel trims. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| So simple-sweet, without a sin, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Like gentle music gently timed, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Like rhyme-words coming aptly in, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| To round a mooned poem rhymed | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| To tunes the laughing bells have chimed. | 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.