L’Envoy
Bellay, first garland of free poesieThat France brought forth, though fruitfull of brave wits,Well worthie thou of immortalitie,That long hast traveld, by thy learned writs,Olde Rome out of her ashes to revive,And give a second life to dead decayes!Needes must he all eternitie survive,That can to other give eternall dayes.Thy dayes therefore are endles, and thy prayseExcelling all that ever went before:And, after thee, gins Bartas hie to rayseHis heavenly Muse, th’Almightie to adore.Live happie spirits, th’honour of your name,And fill the world with never dying fame!
Words in this poem
- fruitfull a.
- Full of fruit; producing fruit abundantly; bearing results; prolific; fertile; liberal; bountiful; as, a fruitful tree, or season, or soil; a fruitful wife.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- eternall a.
- Without beginning or end of existence; always existing. [F. éternel, L. aeternalis, fr. aeternus. See Etern.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- adore v. t.
- To worship with profound reverence; to pay divine honors to; to honor as deity or as divine. [OE. aouren, anouren, adoren, OF. aorer, adorer, F. adorer, fr. L. adorare; ad + orare to speak, pray, os, oris, mouth. In OE. confused with honor, the French pr]
- 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
L’Envoy is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5, Project Gutenberg ebook #10602; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edmund Spenser, L’Envoy, in Amoretti and Epithalamion, and Other Poems (1595), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10602, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/spenser-amoretti/l-envoy-2.html, id L23763.
Form and metre
L’Envoy is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other English sonnets, 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG poesieA · witsB · immortalitieA · writsB · reviveC · decayesD · surviveC · dayesD · prayseE · beforeF · rayseE · adoreF · nameG · fameG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Bellay, first garland of free poesie | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| That France brought forth, though fruitfull of brave wits, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Well worthie thou of immortalitie, | 10 | ·········· |
| That long hast traveld, by thy learned writs, | 10 | ········˘· |
| Olde Rome out of her ashes to revive, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| And give a second life to dead decayes! | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Needes must he all eternitie survive, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| That can to other give eternall dayes. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Thy dayes therefore are endles, and thy prayse | 10 | ·········· |
| Excelling all that ever went before: | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| And, after thee, gins Bartas hie to rayse | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| His heavenly Muse, th’Almightie to adore. | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Live happie spirits, th’honour of your name, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And fill the world with never dying fame! | 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.