O come quickly!
Never weather-beaten sail more willing bent to shore,Never tirèd pilgrim’s limbs affected slumber more,Than my wearied sprite now longs to fly out of my troubled breast:O come quickly, sweetest Lord, and take my soul to rest!
Ever blooming are the joys of heaven’s high Paradise,Cold age deafs not there our ears nor vapour dims our eyes:Glory there the sun outshines; whose beams the Blessèd only see:O come quickly, glorious Lord, and raise my sprite to Thee!
Words in this poem
- sprite n.
- A spirit; a soul; a shade; also, an apparition. See Spright. [OE. sprit, F. esprit, fr. L. spiritus. See Spirit, and cf. Sprightly.]
- vapour n.
- Any substance in the gaseous, or aëriform, state, the condition of which is ordinarily that of a liquid or solid. [OE. vapour, OF. vapour, vapor, vapeur, F. vapeur, L. vapor; probably for cvapor, and akin to Gr. kvepti to breathe, smell, Russ. kopote fine soot. Cf. Vapid.]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
O come quickly! 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, O come quickly!, in Poems (1567–1619), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-thomas-campion/o-come-quickly.html, id L15998.
Form and metre
O come quickly! is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 82% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.8 syllables.
See other poems in trochaic heptameter.
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 shoreA · moreA · breastB · restB
- 2 --AA paradise · eyes · seeA · theeA
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Never weather-beaten sail more willing bent to shore, | 13 | /˘/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Never tirèd pilgrim’s limbs affected slumber more, | 12 | /˘·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| Than my wearied sprite now longs to fly out of my troubled breast: | 15 | ··/˘········/˘· |
| O come quickly, sweetest Lord, and take my soul to rest! | 13 | ··/˘/˘······· |
| Ever blooming are the joys of heaven’s high Paradise, | 14 | /˘/˘····/˘·/˘· |
| Cold age deafs not there our ears nor vapour dims our eyes: | 15 | ·····/˘··/˘·/˘· |
| Glory there the sun outshines; whose beams the Blessèd only see: | 14 | /˘···/·····/˘· |
| O come quickly, glorious Lord, and raise my sprite to Thee! | 14 | ··/˘/˘˘······· |
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.