Poems
Give pardon, blessèd soul, to my bold cries,If they, importune, interrupt thy song,Which now with joyful notes thou sing’st amongThe angel-quiristers of th’ heavenly skies.Give pardon eke, sweet soul, to my slow eyes,That since I saw thee now it is so long,And yet the tears that unto thee belongTo thee as yet they did not sacrifice.I did not know that thou wert dead before;I did not feel the grief I did sustain;The greater stroke astonisheth the more;Astonishment takes from us sense of pain;I stood amazed when others’ tears begun,And now begin to weep when they have done.
Words in this poem
- importune a.
- Inopportune; unseasonable. [F. importun, L. importunus; pref. im- not + a derivative from the root of portus harbor, importunus therefore orig. meaning, hard of access. See Port harbor, an]
- astonishment n.
- The condition of one who is stunned. Hence: Numbness; loss of sensation; stupor; loss of sense. [Cf. OF. est, F. étonnement.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poems 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: Henry Constable, Poems, (1562–1613), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-henry-constable/on-the-death-of-sir-philip-sidney.html, id L15984.
Form and metre
On the Death of Sir Philip Sidney is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AB-AABB-CDCDEE criesA · songB · among · skiesA · eyesA · longB · belongB · sacrifice · beforeC · sustainD · moreC · painD · begunE · doneE
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Give pardon, blessèd soul, to my bold cries, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| If they, importune, interrupt thy song, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Which now with joyful notes thou sing’st among | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The angel-quiristers of th’ heavenly skies. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Give pardon eke, sweet soul, to my slow eyes, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| That since I saw thee now it is so long, | 10 | ·········· |
| And yet the tears that unto thee belong | 10 | ········˘/ |
| To thee as yet they did not sacrifice. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I did not know that thou wert dead before; | 10 | ·········· |
| I did not feel the grief I did sustain; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The greater stroke astonisheth the more; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘·· |
| Astonishment takes from us sense of pain; | 10 | ˘/˘˘······ |
| I stood amazed when others’ tears begun, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| And now begin to weep when they have done. | 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.