To Clare (With a Volume of Stories from Froissart)
My Clare,--These tales were told, you know,In French, five hundred years ago,By old Sir John, whose heart's delightWas lady sweet and valiant knight.A hundred years went by, and thenA great lord told the tales again,When bluff King Hal desired his folkTo read them in the tongue they spoke.Last, I myself among them tookWhat I loved best and made this book.Great, lesser, less--these writers threeWorked for the days they could not see,And certes, in their work they knewNothing at all, dear child, of you.Yet is this book your own in truth,Because 'tis made for noble youth,And every word that's living thereMust die when Clares are no more Clare.
Words in this poem
- clare n.
- A nun of the order of St.Clare.
- valiant a.
- Vigorous in body; strong; powerful; as, a valiant fencer. [OE. valiant, F. vaillant, OF. vaillant, valant, originally p. pr. of OF. & F. valoir to be worth, L. valere to be strong. See Wield, and cf. Avail, Convalesce, ]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- bluff a.
- Having a broad, flattened front; as, the bluff bows of a ship. [Cf. OD. blaf flat, broad, blaffaert one with a broad face, also, a boaster; or G. verblüffen to confuse, LG. bluffen to frighten; to unknown origin.]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- certes adv.
- Certainly; in truth; verily. [F. certes, for à certes, fr. L. certus. See Certain.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Clare (With a Volume of Stories from Froissart) is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems: New and Old, Project Gutenberg ebook #24405; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry John Newbolt, To Clare (With a Volume of Stories from Froissart), in Poems: New and Old (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24405, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/newbolt-poems/to-clare-with-a-volume-of-stories-from-froissart.html, id L11475.
Form and metre
To Clare (With a Volume of Stories from Froissart) is 19 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 95% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 37% 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 ABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIAA clareA · knowB · agoB · delightC · knightC · thenD · againD · folkE · spokeE · tookF · bookF · threeG · seeG · knewH · youH · truthI · youthI · thereA · clareA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My Clare,-- | 2 | ·· |
| These tales were told, you know, | 6 | ······ |
| In French, five hundred years ago, | 9 | ···/˘˘·˘/ |
| By old Sir John, whose heart's delight | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Was lady sweet and valiant knight. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A hundred years went by, and then | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| A great lord told the tales again, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| When bluff King Hal desired his folk | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| To read them in the tongue they spoke. | 8 | ········ |
| Last, I myself among them took | 8 | ···/···· |
| What I loved best and made this book. | 9 | ···˘····· |
| Great, lesser, less--these writers three | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Worked for the days they could not see, | 9 | ·˘······· |
| And certes, in their work they knew | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Nothing at all, dear child, of you. | 8 | /˘······ |
| Yet is this book your own in truth, | 8 | ········ |
| Because 'tis made for noble youth, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And every word that's living there | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
| Must die when Clares are no more Clare. | 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.