Poems
When thy beauty appearsIn its graces and airsAll bright as an angel new dropp’d from the sky,At distance I gaze and am awed by my fears:So strangely you dazzle my eye!
But when without artYour kind thoughts you impart,When your love runs in blushes through every vein;When it darts from your eyes, when it pants in your heart,Then I know you’re a woman again.
There’s a passion and prideIn our sex (she replied),And thus, might I gratify both, I would do:Still an angel appear to each lover beside,But still be a woman to you.
Words in this poem
- strangely adv.
- As something foreign, or not one's own; in a manner adapted to something foreign and strange.
- dazzle v. t.
- To overpower with light; to confuse the sight of by brilliance of light. [Freq. of daze.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poems 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 Parnell, Poems, (1679–1718), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-thomas-parnell/song.html, id L16148.
Form and metre
Song is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. 81% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.7 syllables. 27% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 A-BAB appearsA · airs · skyB · fearsA · eyeB
- 2 AABAB artA · impartA · veinB · heartA · againB
- 3 AABAB prideA · repliedA · doB · besideA · youB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When thy beauty appears | 6 | ··/˘˘/ |
| In its graces and airs | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| All bright as an angel new dropp’d from the sky, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| At distance I gaze and am awed by my fears: | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| So strangely you dazzle my eye! | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| But when without art | 5 | ····· |
| Your kind thoughts you impart, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| When your love runs in blushes through every vein; | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘˘· |
| When it darts from your eyes, when it pants in your heart, | 12 | ············ |
| Then I know you’re a woman again. | 9 | ·····/˘˘/ |
| There’s a passion and pride | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| In our sex (she replied), | 7 | ·/˘··˘/ |
| And thus, might I gratify both, I would do: | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Still an angel appear to each lover beside, | 12 | ··/˘˘/··/˘˘/ |
| But still be a woman to you. | 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.