To Her Sea-faring Lover
Tottel’s Miscellany, 1557
Shall I thus ever long, and be no whit the neare?And shall I still complain to thee, the which me will not hear?Alas! say nay! say nay! and be no more so dumb,But open thou thy manly mouth and say that thou wilt come:Whereby my heart may think, although I see not thee,That thou wilt come--thy word so sware--if thou a live man be.The roaring hugy waves they threaten my poor ghost,And toss thee up and down the seas in danger to be lost.Shall they not make me fear that they have swallowed thee?--But as thou art most sure alive, so wilt thou come to me.Whereby I shall go see thy ship ride on the strand,And think and say _Lo where he comes_ and _Sure here will he land:_
And then I shall lift up to thee my little hand,And thou shalt think thine heart in ease, in health to see me stand.And if thou come indeed (as Christ thee send to do!)Each vein to every joint the lively blood shall spreadWhich now for want of thy glad sight doth show full pale and dead.But if thou slip thy troth, and do not come at all,As minutes in the clock do strike so call for death I shall:To please both thy false heart and rid myself from woe,That rather had to die in troth than live forsaken so!
Words in this poem
- miscellany a.
- Miscellaneous; heterogeneous.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- whit n.
- The smallest part or particle imaginable; a bit; a jot; an iota; -- generally used in an adverbial phrase in a negative sentence. [OE. wight, wiht, AS. wiht a creature, a thing. See Wight, and cf. Aught, Naught.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- troth n.
- Belief; faith; fidelity. [A variant of truth. See Truth.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Her Sea-faring Lover is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Anonymous, To Her Sea-faring Lover, in Poems, text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-anonymous-english/to-her-sea-faring-lover.html, id L15903.
Form and metre
To Her Sea-faring Lover is 22 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 64% of the lines. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.7 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic hexameter.
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.
- 2 AABBCC--CCDD neareA · hearA · dumbB · comeB · theeC · beC · ghost · lost · theeC · meC · strandD · landD
- 3 AA-BB--CC handA · standA · do · spreadB · deadB · all · shall · woeC · soC
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Tottel’s Miscellany, 1557 | 6 | ··/˘·˘ |
| Shall I thus ever long, and be no whit the neare? | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| And shall I still complain to thee, the which me will not hear? | 14 | ····˘/········ |
| Alas! say nay! say nay! and be no more so dumb, | 12 | ˘/·········· |
| But open thou thy manly mouth and say that thou wilt come: | 14 | ·/˘··/˘······· |
| Whereby my heart may think, although I see not thee, | 12 | ············ |
| That thou wilt come--thy word so sware--if thou a live man be. | 14 | ·············· |
| The roaring hugy waves they threaten my poor ghost, | 12 | ·/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| And toss thee up and down the seas in danger to be lost. | 14 | ·········/˘··· |
| Shall they not make me fear that they have swallowed thee? | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| --But as thou art most sure alive, so wilt thou come to me. | 14 | ······˘/······ |
| Whereby I shall go see thy ship ride on the strand, | 12 | ············ |
| And think and say _Lo where he comes_ and _Sure here will he land:_ | 14 | ·············· |
| And then I shall lift up to thee my little hand, | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| And thou shalt think thine heart in ease, in health to see me stand. | 14 | ·············· |
| And if thou come indeed (as Christ thee send to do!) | 12 | ····˘/······ |
| Each vein to every joint the lively blood shall spread | 13 | ···/˘˘··/˘··· |
| Which now for want of thy glad sight doth show full pale and dead. | 14 | ·············· |
| But if thou slip thy troth, and do not come at all, | 12 | ············ |
| As minutes in the clock do strike so call for death I shall: | 14 | ·/˘··········· |
| To please both thy false heart and rid myself from woe, | 12 | ·········/·· |
| That rather had to die in troth than live forsaken so! | 14 | ·/˘·······˘/˘· |
Notes from the edition 1
Quiller-Couch's glosses on the hard words, from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250–1900, chosen and edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch (Oxford, 1900; Project Gutenberg #66619)
- Stanza 1 _54._ neare] nearer. Those arms which miss thee now shall then embrace [and hold] thee too:
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