Dame Pallas to the Quene of Fame

John Skelton (c. 1460–1529) · 1500–1529

iambic trimeter · rhyming couplets · 7 lines · from Poetical Works, Volume I

Soft, my good syster, and make there a pawse:And was Eschines rebukid as ye say?Remembre you wele, poynt wele that clause;Wherfore then rasid ye not awayHis name? or why is it, I you praye,That he to your courte is goyng and commynge,Sith he is slaundred for defaut of konnyng?

Words in this poem

wele n.
Prosperity; happiness; well-being; weal. [See Weal prosperity.]
sith prep.
Since; afterwards; seeing that. [See Since.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Dame Pallas to the Quene of Fame is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of John Skelton, Volume 1 (of 2), Project Gutenberg ebook #59997; 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 Skelton, Dame Pallas to the Quene of Fame, in Poetical Works, Volume I (1500–1529), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/skelton-poems/dame-pallas-to-the-quene-of-fame-2.html, id L08686.

Form and metre

Dame Pallas to the Quene of Fame is 7 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines. The lines average 9.9 syllables.

See other poems in rhyming couplets.

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. 1 -A-AABB pawse · sayA · clause · awayA · prayeA · commyngeB · konnyngB
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. How this is done.

LineSyl.Stress
Soft, my good syster, and make there a pawse:10··········
And was Eschines rebukid as ye say?10··········
Remembre you wele, poynt wele that clause;11˘/˘········
Wherfore then rasid ye not away9·······˘/
His name? or why is it, I you praye,9·········
That he to your courte is goyng and commynge,10··········
Sith he is slaundred for defaut of konnyng?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.

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