On a Virtuous Young Gentlewoman that died suddenly
She who to Heaven more Heaven doth annex,Whose lowest thought was above all our sex,Accounted nothing death but t’ be reprieved,And died as free from sickness as she lived.Others are dragg’d away, or must be driven,She only saw her time and stept to Heaven;Where seraphims view all her glories o’er,As one return’d that had been there before.For while she did this lower world adorn,Her body seem’d rather assumed than born;So rarified, advanced, so pure and whole,That body might have been another’s soul;And equally a miracle it wereThat she could die, or that she could live here.
About this text
On a Virtuous Young Gentlewoman that died suddenly 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: William Cartwright, On a Virtuous Young Gentlewoman that died suddenly, in Poems (1611–1643), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-william-cartwright/on-a-virtuous-young-gentlewoman-that-died-sudden.html, id L16094.
Form and metre
On a Virtuous Young Gentlewoman that died suddenly is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 AA------BBCC-- annexA · sexA · reprieved · lived · driven · heaven · o'er · before · adornB · bornB · wholeC · soulC · were · here
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 |
|---|---|---|
| She who to Heaven more Heaven doth annex, | 10 | ···/·/˘·˘/ |
| Whose lowest thought was above all our sex, | 10 | ·/˘·····/· |
| Accounted nothing death but t’ be reprieved, | 11 | ˘/˘/˘····˘/ |
| And died as free from sickness as she lived. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Others are dragg’d away, or must be driven, | 11 | /˘··˘/···/˘ |
| She only saw her time and stept to Heaven; | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| Where seraphims view all her glories o’er, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| As one return’d that had been there before. | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| For while she did this lower world adorn, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Her body seem’d rather assumed than born; | 10 | ·/˘·/˘˘/·· |
| So rarified, advanced, so pure and whole, | 10 | ···˘/˘···· |
| That body might have been another’s soul; | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| And equally a miracle it were | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘˘·· |
| That she could die, or that she could live here. | 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.