A Hymn
Fly, my Soul! What hangs uponThy drooping wings,And weighs them downWith love of gaudy mortal things?
The Sun is now i’ the east: each shadeAs he doth riseIs shorter made,That earth may lessen to our eyes.
O be not careless then and playUntil the Star of PeaceHide all his beams in dark recess!Poor pilgrims needs must lose their way,When all the shadows do increase.
Words in this poem
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Hymn 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: James Shirley, A Hymn, in Poems (1596–1666), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-james-shirley/a-hymn.html, id L16069.
Form and metre
A Hymn is 13 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 46% 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 -A-A upon · wingsA · down · thingsA
- 2 ABAB shadeA · riseB · madeA · eyesB
- 3 AB-AB playA · peaceB · recess · wayA · increaseB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fly, my Soul! What hangs upon | 7 | ······· |
| Thy drooping wings, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And weighs them down | 4 | ···· |
| With love of gaudy mortal things? | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The Sun is now i’ the east: each shade | 9 | ········· |
| As he doth rise | 4 | ···· |
| Is shorter made, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| That earth may lessen to our eyes. | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| O be not careless then and play | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Until the Star of Peace | 6 | ······ |
| Hide all his beams in dark recess! | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Poor pilgrims needs must lose their way, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| When all the shadows do increase. | 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.