The Quene of Fame to Skelton
My frende, sith ye ar before vs here presentTo answere vnto this noble audyence,Of that shalbe resonde you ye must be content;And for as moche as, by the hy pretenceThat ye haue now thorow preemynenceOf laureat triumphe, your place is here reseruyd,We wyll vnderstande how ye haue it deseruyd.
Words in this poem
- sith prep.
- Since; afterwards; seeing that. [See Since.]
- moche n.
- A bale of raw silk. [F.]
- pretence n.
- The act of laying claim; the claim laid; assumption; pretension. [LL. praetensus, for L. praetentus, p. p. of praetendere. See Pretend, and cf. Tension.]
- thorow a.
- Thorough. Hakluyt.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Quene of Fame to Skelton 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, The Quene of Fame to Skelton, in Poetical Works, Volume I (1500–1529), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/skelton-poems/the-quene-of-fame-to-skelton.html, id L08701.
Form and metre
The Quene of Fame to Skelton is 7 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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-ABBCC presentA · audyence · contentA · pretenceB · preemynenceB · reseruydC · deseruydC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My frende, sith ye ar before vs here present | 12 | ·······//·/˘ |
| To answere vnto this noble audyence, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Of that shalbe resonde you ye must be content; | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| And for as moche as, by the hy pretence | 10 | ·········· |
| That ye haue now thorow preemynence | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Of laureat triumphe, your place is here reseruyd, | 11 | ··········· |
| We wyll vnderstande how ye haue it deseruyd. | 11 | ··········· |
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.