A Devout Lover
I have a mistress, for perfections rareIn every eye, but in my thoughts most fair.Like tapers on the altar shine her eyes;Her breath is the perfume of sacrifice;And wheresoever my fancy would begin,Still her perfection lets religion in.We sit and talk, and kiss away the hoursAs chastely as the morning dews kiss flowers:I touch her, like my beads, with devout care,And come unto my courtship as my prayer.
Words in this poem
- chastely adv.
- In a chaste manner; with purity.
- courtship n.
- The act of paying court, with the intent to solicit a favor.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Devout Lover 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 Randolph, A Devout Lover, in Poems (1605–1635), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-thomas-randolph/a-devout-lover.html, id L16081.
Form and metre
A Devout Lover is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 80% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AAB-CCBBAA rareA · fairA · eyesB · sacrifice · beginC · inC · hoursB · flowersB · careA · prayerA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I have a mistress, for perfections rare | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| In every eye, but in my thoughts most fair. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Like tapers on the altar shine her eyes; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Her breath is the perfume of sacrifice; | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| And wheresoever my fancy would begin, | 11 | ······/˘·˘/ |
| Still her perfection lets religion in. | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| We sit and talk, and kiss away the hours | 11 | ······˘/·/˘ |
| As chastely as the morning dews kiss flowers: | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| I touch her, like my beads, with devout care, | 10 | ·······˘/· |
| And come unto my courtship as my prayer. | 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.