Another
This little vault, this narrow room,Of Love and Beauty is the tomb;The dawning beam, that ’gan to clearOur clouded sky, lies darkened here,For ever set to us: by DeathSent to enflame the World Beneath,’Twas but a bud, yet did containMore sweetness than shall spring again;A budding Star, that might have grownInto a Sun when it had blown.This hopeful Beauty did createNew life in Love’s declining state;But now his empire ends, and weFrom fire and wounding darts are free;His brand, his bow, let no man fear:The flames, the arrows, all lie here.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- hopeful a.
- Full of hope, or agreeable expectation; inclined to hope; expectant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Another 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 Carew, Another, in Poems (1595–1639), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-thomas-carew/another.html, id L16077.
Form and metre
Another is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 88% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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--CCDDEEFFBB roomA · tombA · clearB · hereB · death · beneath · containC · againC · grownD · blownD · createE · stateE · weF · freeF · fearB · hereB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| This little vault, this narrow room, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Of Love and Beauty is the tomb; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The dawning beam, that ’gan to clear | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Our clouded sky, lies darkened here, | 8 | //˘··/˘· |
| For ever set to us: by Death | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Sent to enflame the World Beneath, | 8 | ········ |
| ’Twas but a bud, yet did contain | 8 | ······˘/ |
| More sweetness than shall spring again; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| A budding Star, that might have grown | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Into a Sun when it had blown. | 8 | ········ |
| This hopeful Beauty did create | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| New life in Love’s declining state; | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| But now his empire ends, and we | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| From fire and wounding darts are free; | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| His brand, his bow, let no man fear: | 8 | ········ |
| The flames, the arrows, all lie here. | 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.