On One who died discovering her Kindness
Some vex their souls with jealous pain,While others sigh for cold disdain:Love’s various slaves we daily see--Yet happy all compared with me!
Of all mankind I loved the bestA nymph so far above the restThat we outshined the Blest above;In beauty she, as I in love.
And therefore They, who could not bearTo be outdone by mortals here,Among themselves have placed her now,And left me wretched here below.
All other fate I could have borne,And even endured her very scorn;But oh! thus all at once to findThat dread account--both dead and kind!What heart can hold? If yet I live,’Tis but to show how much I grieve.
About this text
On One who died discovering her Kindness 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: John Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, On One who died discovering her Kindness, in Poems (1649–1720), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-john-sheffield-duke-of-buckinghamshire/on-one-who-died-discovering-her-kindness.html, id L16133.
Form and metre
On One who died discovering her Kindness is 18 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 22% 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 AABB painA · disdainA · seeB · meB
- 2 AABB bestA · restA · aboveB · loveB
- 3 AA-- bearA · hereA · now · below
- 4 AABB-- borneA · scornA · findB · kindB · live · grieve
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Some vex their souls with jealous pain, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| While others sigh for cold disdain: | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Love’s various slaves we daily see-- | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Yet happy all compared with me! | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Of all mankind I loved the best | 8 | ··//···· |
| A nymph so far above the rest | 8 | ········ |
| That we outshined the Blest above; | 8 | ··/····· |
| In beauty she, as I in love. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And therefore They, who could not bear | 8 | ········ |
| To be outdone by mortals here, | 8 | ··//·/˘· |
| Among themselves have placed her now, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And left me wretched here below. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| All other fate I could have borne, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And even endured her very scorn; | 8 | ·/˘/·/˘· |
| But oh! thus all at once to find | 8 | ········ |
| That dread account--both dead and kind! | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| What heart can hold? If yet I live, | 8 | ········ |
| ’Tis but to show how much I grieve. | 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.