Of the Fifth Volume
ComplaintsThe Ruines of TimeThe Teares of the MusesVirgils GnatProsopopoia: or Mother Hubberds TaleRuines of Rome: by BellayMuiopotmos: or the Fate of the ButterflieVisions of the Worlds VanitieThe Visions of BellayThe Visions of PetrarchDaphnaidaAmorettiEpithalamionProthalamionFowre HymnesEpigramsSonnets
I. Variations from the Original EditionsII. Two Letters from Spenser to HarveyIII. Index of Proper Names
Words in this poem
- prothalamion n.
- A song in celebration of a marriage. Drayton.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Of the Fifth Volume 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, Of the Fifth Volume, in Amoretti and Epithalamion, and Other Poems (1595), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10602, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/spenser-amoretti/of-the-fifth-volume.html, id L23735.
Form and metre
Of the Fifth Volume is 20 lines in 2 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See 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 -----ABBA---CC--- complaints · time · muses · gnat · tale · bellayA · butterflieB · vanitieB · bellayA · petrarch · daphnaida · amoretti · epithalamionC · prothalamionC · hymnes · epigrams · sonnets
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Complaints | 2 | ˘/ |
| The Ruines of Time | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| The Teares of the Muses | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Virgils Gnat | 3 | /˘· |
| Prosopopoia: or Mother Hubberds Tale | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Ruines of Rome: by Bellay | 7 | /˘····· |
| Muiopotmos: or the Fate of the Butterflie | 11 | ··········· |
| Visions of the Worlds Vanitie | 8 | /˘······ |
| The Visions of Bellay | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The Visions of Petrarch | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Daphnaida | 3 | ··· |
| Amoretti | 4 | ···· |
| Epithalamion | 5 | ····· |
| Prothalamion | 4 | ···· |
| Fowre Hymnes | 2 | ·· |
| Epigrams | 3 | /˘· |
| Sonnets | 2 | /˘ |
| I. Variations from the Original Editions | 13 | ··˘/˘··˘/˘˘/˘ |
| II. Two Letters from Spenser to Harvey | 10 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| III. Index of Proper Names | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
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.