Poem IV
“Why doo I longer live in lifes despight,And doo not dye then in despight of death!Why doo I longer see this loathsome light,And doo in darknesse not abridge my breath,Sith all my sorrow should have end thereby,And cares finde quiet! Is it so uneathTo leave this life, or dolorous to dye?
“To live I finde it deadly dolorous,For life drawes care, and care continuall woe;Therefore to dye must needes be ioyeous,And wishfull thing this sad life to forgoe.But I must stay; I may it not amend;My Daphne hence departing bad me so;She bad me stay, till she for me did send.
“Yet, whilest I in this wretched vale doo stay,My wearie feete shall ever wandring be,That still I may be readie on my wayWhen, as her messenger doth come for me;Ne will I rest my feete for feeblenesse,Ne will I rest my limmes for frailtie,Ne will I rest mine eyes for heavinesse.
“But, as the mother of the gods, that soughtFor faire Euridyce, her daughter dere,Throughout the world, with wofull heavie thought,So will I travell whilest I tarrie heere,Ne will I lodge, ne will I ever lin,Ne, when as drouping Titan draweth nereTo loose his teeme, will I take up my inne**.
“Ne sleepe, the harbenger of wearie wights,Shall ever lodge upon mine eye-lids more,Ne shall with rest refresh my fainting sprights,Nor failing force to former strength restore:But I will wake and sorrow all the nightWith Philumene, my fortune to deplore;With Philumene, the partner of my plight.
“And ever as I see the starre to fall,And under ground to goe to give them lightWhich dwell in darknesse, I to mind will callHow my faire starre, that shind on me so bright,Fell sodainly and faded under ground;Since whose departure, day is turnd to night,And night without a Venus starre is found.
“But soon as day doth shew his deawie face,And cals foorth men unto their toylsome trade,I will withdraw me to some darkesome place,Or some dere cave, or solitarie shade;There will I sigh, and sorrow all day long,And the huge burden of my cares unlade.Weepe, Shepheard! weepe, to make my undersong.
Words in this poem 19
- sith prep.
- Since; afterwards; seeing that. [See Since.]
- uneath a.
- Not easy; difficult; hard. [AS. uneá; un- not + eá easily, easy; akin to OS. easy, OHG. .]
- dolorous a.
- Full of grief; sad; sorrowful; doleful; dismal; as, a dolorous object; dolorous discourses. [L. dolorosus, from dolor: cf. F. douloureux. See Dolor.]
- continuall a.
- Proceeding without interruption or cesstaion; continuous; unceasing; lasting; abiding. [OE. continuel, F. continuel. See Continue.]
- wishfull a.
- Having desire, or ardent desire; longing. [Cf. Wistful.]
- daphne n.
- A genus of diminutive Shrubs, mostly evergreen, and with fragrant blossoms. [L., a laurel tree, from Gr. .]
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- 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,]
- dere v. t.
- To hurt; to harm; to injure. [AS. derian to hurt.]
- wofull a.
- Full of woe; sorrowful; distressed with grief or calamity; afflicted; wretched; unhappy; sad.
- travell v. i.
- To labor; to travail. Hooker. [Properly, to labor, and the same word as travail.]
- deplore v. t.
- To feel or to express deep and poignant grief for; to bewail; to lament; to mourn; to sorrow over. [L. deplorare; de- + plorare to cry out, wail, lament; prob. akin to pluere to rain, and to E. flow: cf. F. déplorer. Cf. Flow.]
- 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.]
- starre n.
- One of the innumerable luminous bodies seen in the heavens; any heavenly body other than the sun, moon, comets, and nebulæ. [OE. sterre, AS. steorra; akin to OFries. stera, OS. sterro, D. ster, OHG. sterno, sterro, G. stern, Icel. stjarna, Sw. stjerna, Dan. stierne, Goth. staírno, Arm]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- departure n.
- Division; separation; putting away. [From Depart.]
- shew n.
- Show. [Obs. except in shewbread.]
- unlade v. t.
- To take the load from; to take out the cargo of; as, to unlade a ship or a wagon. [1st un- + lade.]
- undersong n.
- The burden of a song; the chorus; the refrain.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poem IV 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, Poem IV, in Amoretti and Epithalamion, and Other Poems (1595), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10602, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/spenser-amoretti/poem-iv-4.html, id L23775.
Form and metre
Poem IV is 49 lines in 7 stanzas of 7 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCBC, complete in 5 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABABCBC despightA · deathB · lightA · breathB · therebyC · uneathB · dyeC
- 2 -A--BAB dolorous · woeA · ioyeous · forgoe · amendB · soA · sendB
- 3 ABABC-C stayA · beB · wayA · meB · feeblenesseC · frailtie · heavinesseC
- 4 ABABCBC soughtA · dereB · thoughtA · heereB · linC · nereB · inneC
- 5 ABABCBC wightsA · moreB · sprightsA · restoreB · nightC · deploreB · plightC
- 6 ABABCBC fallA · lightB · callA · brightB · groundC · nightB · foundC
- 7 ABABCBC faceA · tradeB · placeA · shadeB · longC · unladeB · undersongC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “Why doo I longer live in lifes despight, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And doo not dye then in despight of death! | 10 | ·········· |
| Why doo I longer see this loathsome light, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And doo in darknesse not abridge my breath, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Sith all my sorrow should have end thereby, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And cares finde quiet! Is it so uneath | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| To leave this life, or dolorous to dye? | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| “To live I finde it deadly dolorous, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| For life drawes care, and care continuall woe; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Therefore to dye must needes be ioyeous, | 8 | ········ |
| And wishfull thing this sad life to forgoe. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| But I must stay; I may it not amend; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| My Daphne hence departing bad me so; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| She bad me stay, till she for me did send. | 10 | ·········· |
| “Yet, whilest I in this wretched vale doo stay, | 11 | ·/˘···/˘··· |
| My wearie feete shall ever wandring be, | 10 | ·····//˘˘· |
| That still I may be readie on my way | 10 | ·········· |
| When, as her messenger doth come for me; | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Ne will I rest my feete for feeblenesse, | 10 | ·········· |
| Ne will I rest my limmes for frailtie, | 9 | ········· |
| Ne will I rest mine eyes for heavinesse. | 10 | ·········· |
| “But, as the mother of the gods, that sought | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| For faire Euridyce, her daughter dere, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Throughout the world, with wofull heavie thought, | 10 | ·········· |
| So will I travell whilest I tarrie heere, | 11 | ···/˘/˘···· |
| Ne will I lodge, ne will I ever lin, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Ne, when as drouping Titan draweth nere | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| To loose his teeme, will I take up my inne**. | 10 | ·········· |
| “Ne sleepe, the harbenger of wearie wights, | 10 | ·········· |
| Shall ever lodge upon mine eye-lids more, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Ne shall with rest refresh my fainting sprights, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| Nor failing force to former strength restore: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| But I will wake and sorrow all the night | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| With Philumene, my fortune to deplore; | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| With Philumene, the partner of my plight. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| “And ever as I see the starre to fall, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And under ground to goe to give them light | 10 | ·········· |
| Which dwell in darknesse, I to mind will call | 10 | ·········· |
| How my faire starre, that shind on me so bright, | 10 | ·········· |
| Fell sodainly and faded under ground; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Since whose departure, day is turnd to night, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| And night without a Venus starre is found. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| “But soon as day doth shew his deawie face, | 10 | ·········· |
| And cals foorth men unto their toylsome trade, | 10 | ·········· |
| I will withdraw me to some darkesome place, | 11 | ··˘/······· |
| Or some dere cave, or solitarie shade; | 10 | ·········· |
| There will I sigh, and sorrow all day long, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And the huge burden of my cares unlade. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Weepe, Shepheard! weepe, to make my undersong. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
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