Late Deceased
Wrong’d, yet not daring to expresse my paine,To you, great Lord, the causer of my care,In clowdie teares my case I thus complaineUnto your selfe, that onely privie are.But if that any Oedipus unwareShall chaunce, through power of some divining spright,To reade the secrete of this riddle rare,And know the purporte of my evill plight,Let him rest pleased with his owne insight,Ne further seeke to glose upon the text:For griefe enough it is to grieved wightTo feele his fault, and not be further vext.But what so by my selfe may not be showen,May by this Gnatts complaint be easily knowen.
Words in this poem
- causer n.
- One who or that which causes.
- unware a.
- Unaware; not foreseeing; being off one's guard. [AS. unwær unwary. See Un- not, and Wary.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- spright n.
- Spirit; mind; soul; state of mind; mood. [See Sprite.]
- plight v. t.
- To weave; to braid; to fold; to plait. [OE. pliten; probably through Old French, fr. LL. plectare, L. plectere. See Plait, Ply.]
- insight n.
- A sight or view of the interior of anything; a deep inspection or view; introspection; -- frequently used with into.
- wight n.
- A whit; a bit; a jot. [OE. wight, wiht, a wight, a whit, AS. wiht, wuht, a creature, a thing; skin to D. wicht a child, OS. & OHG. wiht a creature, thing, G. wicht a creature, Icel. v]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Late Deceased 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, Late Deceased, in Amoretti and Epithalamion, and Other Poems (1595), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10602, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/spenser-amoretti/late-deceased.html, id L23759.
Form and metre
Late Deceased 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 84%).
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 paineA · careB · complaineA · areB · unwareC · sprightD · rareC · plightD · insightE · textF · wightE · vextF · showenG · knowenG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wrong’d, yet not daring to expresse my paine, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To you, great Lord, the causer of my care, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| In clowdie teares my case I thus complaine | 10 | ·········· |
| Unto your selfe, that onely privie are. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But if that any Oedipus unware | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Shall chaunce, through power of some divining spright, | 10 | ···/··˘/˘· |
| To reade the secrete of this riddle rare, | 10 | ···˘/··/˘· |
| And know the purporte of my evill plight, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Let him rest pleased with his owne insight, | 10 | ····˘···/· |
| Ne further seeke to glose upon the text: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| For griefe enough it is to grieved wight | 10 | ··˘/····˘· |
| To feele his fault, and not be further vext. | 11 | ········/˘· |
| But what so by my selfe may not be showen, | 11 | ··········· |
| May by this Gnatts complaint be easily knowen. | 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.