A Song: What cruel Pains Corinna takes
What cruel Pains Corinna takes,To force that harmless Frown:When not one Charm her Face forsakes,Love cannot lose his own.
So sweet a Face, so soft a Heart,Such Eyes so very kind,Betray, alas! the silly ArtVirtue had ill design'd.
Poor feeble Tyrant! who in vainWould proudly take upon her,Against kind Nature to maintainAffected Rules of Honour.
The Scorn she bears so helpless proves,When I plead Passion to her,That much she fears, (but more she loves,)Her Vassal should undo her.A young Lady to her ancient Lover.
Words in this poem
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Song: What cruel Pains Corinna takes is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Works of the Right Honourable John, Earl of Rochester Consisting of Satires, Songs, Translations, and other Occasional Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #44891; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Wilmot Rochester, A Song: What cruel Pains Corinna takes, in The Works of the Earl of Rochester (1680), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #44891, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rochester-works/a-song-what-cruel-pains-corinna-takes.html, id L20442.
Form and metre
A Song: What cruel Pains Corinna takes is 17 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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.
- 2 ABAB heartA · kindB · artA · design'dB
- 3 A-A- vainA · her · maintainA · honour
- 4 -A-A- proves · herA · loves · herA · lover
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What cruel Pains Corinna takes, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To force that harmless Frown: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| When not one Charm her Face forsakes, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Love cannot lose his own. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| So sweet a Face, so soft a Heart, | 8 | ········ |
| Such Eyes so very kind, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Betray, alas! the silly Art | 8 | ˘/˘/·/˘· |
| Virtue had ill design'd. | 6 | /˘··˘/ |
| Poor feeble Tyrant! who in vain | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Would proudly take upon her, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Against kind Nature to maintain | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Affected Rules of Honour. | 7 | ˘/˘··/˘ |
| The Scorn she bears so helpless proves, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| When I plead Passion to her, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| That much she fears, (but more she loves,) | 8 | ········ |
| Her Vassal should undo her. | 7 | ·/˘·˘/· |
| A young Lady to her ancient Lover. | 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.