Ballad V: My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is
"I am no such pil'd cynique to believeThat beggery is the onely happinesse,Or, with a number of these patient fooles,To sing, 'My minde to me a kingdome is,'When the lanke hungrie belly barkes for foode."
Some improvements and an additional stanza (sc. the 5th), were had fromtwo other ancient copies; one of them in black letter in the PepysCollection, thus inscribed, "A sweet and pleasant sonet, intitled, 'MyMinde to me a Kingdom is.' To the tune of, In Crete, &c."
About this text
Ballad V: My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is is in the public domain. This text is taken from Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume 1 (of 3) Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets Together With Some Few of Later Date, Project Gutenberg ebook #45939; 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 Percy, Ballad V: My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is, in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume I (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #45939, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/percy-reliques/ballad-v-my-mind-to-me-a-kingdom-is.html, id L08551.
Form and metre
Ballad V: My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is is 9 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.8 syllables. 44% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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.
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 am no such pil'd cynique to believe | 10 | ········˘/ |
| That beggery is the onely happinesse, | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Or, with a number of these patient fooles, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| To sing, 'My minde to me a kingdome is,' | 10 | ·········· |
| When the lanke hungrie belly barkes for foode." | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Some improvements and an additional stanza (sc. the 5th), were had from | 16 | ·˘/˘··˘/˘/˘····· |
| two other ancient copies; one of them in black letter in the Pepys | 18 | ·/˘/˘/˘·····/˘···· |
| Collection, thus inscribed, "A sweet and pleasant sonet, intitled, 'My | 16 | ˘/˘·˘/···/˘/˘··· |
| Minde to me a Kingdom is.' To the tune of, In Crete, &c." | 14 | ····/˘········ |
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.