Follow thy fair sun, unhappy shadow!
Follow thy fair sun, unhappy shadow!Though thou be black as night,And she made all of light,Yet follow thy fair sun, unhappy shadow!
Follow her, whose light thy light depriveth!Though here thou liv’st disgraced,And she in heaven is placed,Yet follow her whose light the world reviveth!
Follow those pure beams, whose beauty burneth!That so have scorchèd theeAs thou still black must be,Till her kind beams thy black to brightness turneth.
Follow her, while yet her glory shineth!There comes a luckless nightThat will dim all her light;And this the black unhappy shade divineth.
Follow still, since so thy fates ordainèd!The sun must have his shade,Till both at once do fade,--The sun still proud, the shadow still disdainèd.
Words in this poem
- luckless a.
- Being without luck; unpropitious; unfortunate; unlucky; meeting with ill success or bad fortune; as, a luckless gamester; a luckless maid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Follow thy fair sun, unhappy shadow! 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: Thomas Campion, Follow thy fair sun, unhappy shadow!, in Poems (1567–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-thomas-campion/i.html, id L15992.
Form and metre
Follow thy fair sun, unhappy shadow! is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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 ABBA shadowA · nightB · lightB · shadowA
- 2 ABBA deprivethA · disgracedB · placedB · revivethA
- 3 ABBA burnethA · theeB · beB · turnethA
- 4 -AA- shineth · nightA · lightA · divineth
- 5 ABBA ordainèdA · shadeB · fadeB · disdainèdA
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 trochaic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Follow thy fair sun, unhappy shadow! | 10 | /˘···˘/˘/· |
| Though thou be black as night, | 6 | ······ |
| And she made all of light, | 6 | ······ |
| Yet follow thy fair sun, unhappy shadow! | 11 | ·/˘···˘/˘/· |
| Follow her, whose light thy light depriveth! | 10 | /˘·····˘/˘ |
| Though here thou liv’st disgraced, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And she in heaven is placed, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Yet follow her whose light the world reviveth! | 11 | ·/˘·····˘/˘ |
| Follow those pure beams, whose beauty burneth! | 10 | /˘····/˘/˘ |
| That so have scorchèd thee | 5 | ····· |
| As thou still black must be, | 6 | ······ |
| Till her kind beams thy black to brightness turneth. | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Follow her, while yet her glory shineth! | 10 | /˘····/˘/˘ |
| There comes a luckless night | 6 | ···/˘· |
| That will dim all her light; | 6 | ······ |
| And this the black unhappy shade divineth. | 11 | ····˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Follow still, since so thy fates ordainèd! | 9 | /˘······· |
| The sun must have his shade, | 6 | ······ |
| Till both at once do fade,-- | 6 | ······ |
| The sun still proud, the shadow still disdainèd. | 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.