False though She be
False though she be to me and love,I’ll ne’er pursue revenge;For still the charmer I approve,Though I deplore her change.
In hours of bliss we oft have met:They could not always last;And though the present I regret,I’m grateful for the past.
Words in this poem
- charmer n.
- One who charms, or has power to charm; one who uses the power of enchantment; a magician. Deut. xviii. 11.
- deplore v. t.
- To feel or to express deep and poignant grief for; to bewail; to lament; to mourn; to sorrow over. [L. deplorare; de- + plorare to cry out, wail, lament; prob. akin to pluere to rain, and to E. flow: cf. F. déplorer. Cf. Flow.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
False though She be 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 Congreve, False though She be, in Poems (1670–1729), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-william-congreve/false-though-she-be.html, id L16143.
Form and metre
False though She be is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables.
See other poems in common measure.
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-A- loveA · revenge · approveA · change
- 2 ABAB metA · lastB · regretA · pastB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| False though she be to me and love, | 8 | ········ |
| I’ll ne’er pursue revenge; | 6 | ··˘/˘/ |
| For still the charmer I approve, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Though I deplore her change. | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| In hours of bliss we oft have met: | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| They could not always last; | 6 | ···/·· |
| And though the present I regret, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| I’m grateful for the past. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.