Laura
Rose-cheek’d _Laura_, come;Sing thou smoothly with thy beauty’sSilent music, either otherSweetly gracing.
Lovely forms do flowFrom concent divinely framèd:Heaven is music, and thy beauty’sBirth is heavenly.
These dull notes we singDiscords need for helps to grace them;Only beauty purely lovingKnows no discord;
But still moves delight,Like clear springs renew’d by flowing,Ever perfect, ever in them-selves eternal.
_Devotion_
Words in this poem
- laura n.
- A number of hermitages or cells in the same neighborhood occupied by anchorites who were under the same superior. C. Kingsley.
- concent n.
- Concert of voices; concord of sounds; harmony; as, a concent of notes. [L. concentus, fr. concinere to sing together; con- + canere to sing.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Laura 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, Laura, in Poems (1567–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-thomas-campion/laura.html, id L15991.
Form and metre
Laura is 17 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic trimeter. 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.1 syllables. 10 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 41% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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.
- 3 A-A- singA · them · lovingA · discord
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Rose-cheek’d _Laura_, come; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Sing thou smoothly with thy beauty’s | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Silent music, either other | 8 | /˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Sweetly gracing. | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| Lovely forms do flow | 5 | /˘··· |
| From concent divinely framèd: | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘· |
| Heaven is music, and thy beauty’s | 9 | /˘·/˘··/˘ |
| Birth is heavenly. | 5 | ··/˘˘ |
| These dull notes we sing | 5 | ····· |
| Discords need for helps to grace them; | 8 | /˘······ |
| Only beauty purely loving | 8 | /˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Knows no discord; | 4 | ··/˘ |
| But still moves delight, | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Like clear springs renew’d by flowing, | 8 | ···˘/·/˘ |
| Ever perfect, ever in them- | 8 | /˘˘//˘·· |
| selves eternal. | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| _Devotion_ | 3 | ˘/˘ |
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.