A Song
Love bid me hope, and I obey'd;Phillis continu'd still unkind:Then you may e'en despair, he said,In vain I strive to change her Mind.
Honour's got in, and keeps her Heart;Durst he but venture once abroad,In my own Right I'd take your part,And shew my self a mightier God.
This huffing Honour domineersIn Breasts, where he alone has place:But if true gen'rous Love appears,The Hector dares not shew his Face.
Let me still languish, and complain,Be most inhumanly deny'd:I have some Pleasure in my Pain,She can have none with all her Pride.
I fall a Sacrifice to Love,She lives a Wretch for Honour's sake;Whose Tyrant does most cruel prove,The Difference is not hard to make.
Consider Real Honour then,You'll find Hers cannot be the same,'Tis noble Confidence in Men,In Women mean mistrustful Shame.
Words in this poem
- unkind a.
- Having no race or kindred; childless. [See Kin kindred.]
- shew n.
- Show. [Obs. except in shewbread.]
- 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.]
- languish v. i.
- To cause to dr Shak.
- inhumanly adv.
- In an inhuman manner; cruelly; barbarously.
- mistrustful a.
- Having or causing mistrust, suspicions, or forebodings.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Song 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, in The Works of the Earl of Rochester (1680), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #44891, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rochester-works/a-song.html, id L20438.
Form and metre
A Song is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.7 syllables. 30 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% 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 -A-A obey'd · unkindA · said · mindA
- 2 A-A- heartA · abroad · partA · god
- 3 ABAB domineersA · placeB · appearsA · faceB
- 4 A-A- complainA · deny'd · painA · pride
- 5 ABAB loveA · sakeB · proveA · makeB
- 6 ABAB thenA · sameB · menA · shameB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love bid me hope, and I obey'd; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Phillis continu'd still unkind: | 8 | /˘˘/˘·˘/ |
| Then you may e'en despair, he said, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| In vain I strive to change her Mind. | 8 | ········ |
| Honour's got in, and keeps her Heart; | 8 | /˘······ |
| Durst he but venture once abroad, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| In my own Right I'd take your part, | 8 | ········ |
| And shew my self a mightier God. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| This huffing Honour domineers | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| In Breasts, where he alone has place: | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| But if true gen'rous Love appears, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The Hector dares not shew his Face. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Let me still languish, and complain, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Be most inhumanly deny'd: | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| I have some Pleasure in my Pain, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| She can have none with all her Pride. | 8 | ········ |
| I fall a Sacrifice to Love, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| She lives a Wretch for Honour's sake; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Whose Tyrant does most cruel prove, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The Difference is not hard to make. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Consider Real Honour then, | 7 | ˘/˘·/˘· |
| You'll find Hers cannot be the same, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| 'Tis noble Confidence in Men, | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| In Women mean mistrustful Shame. | 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.