Ballad XIV: Take Those Lips Away
Take, oh take those lips away,That so sweetlye were forsworne;And those eyes, the breake of day,Lights, that do misleade the morne:But my kisses bring againe,Seales of love, but seal'd in vaine
Hide, oh hide those hills of snowe,Which thy frozen bosom beares,On whose tops the pinkes that growe,Are of those that April wears:But first set my poor heart free,Bound in those icy chains by thee.
Words in this poem
- morne a.
- Of or pertaining to the morn; morning.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ballad XIV: Take Those Lips Away 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 XIV: Take Those Lips Away, in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume I (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #45939, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/percy-reliques/ballad-xiv-take-those-lips-away.html, id L08542.
Form and metre
Ballad XIV: Take Those Lips Away is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, 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 7.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABABCC awayA · forsworneB · dayA · morneB · againeC · vaineC
- 2 ABABCC snoweA · bearesB · groweA · wearsB · freeC · theeC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Take, oh take those lips away, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| That so sweetlye were forsworne; | 7 | ······· |
| And those eyes, the breake of day, | 7 | ······· |
| Lights, that do misleade the morne: | 8 | ······/˘ |
| But my kisses bring againe, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Seales of love, but seal'd in vaine | 7 | ······· |
| Hide, oh hide those hills of snowe, | 7 | ······· |
| Which thy frozen bosom beares, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| On whose tops the pinkes that growe, | 7 | ······· |
| Are of those that April wears: | 7 | ····/˘· |
| But first set my poor heart free, | 7 | ······· |
| Bound in those icy chains by thee. | 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.