Excuse for Wishing Her Less Fair
Why thy passion should it moveThat I wished thy beauty less?Fools desire what is abovePower of nature to express;And to wish it had been moreHad been to outwish her store.
If the flames within thine eyeDid not too great heat inspire,Men might languish, yet not die, }At thy less ungentle fire, }And might on thy weaker lightGaze, and yet not lose their sight.
Nor wouldst thou less fair appear,For detraction adds to thee;If some parts less beauteous were,Others would much fairer be;Nor can any part we knowBest be styl'd, when all are so.
Thus this great excess of light,Which now dazzles our weak eyes,Would, eclips'd, appear more bright;And the only way to rise,Or to be more fair, for[29:3] thee,Celia! is less fair to be.
Words in this poem
- languish v. i.
- To cause to dr Shak.
- ungentle a.
- Not gentle; lacking good breeding or delicacy; harsh.
- detraction n.
- A taking away or withdrawing. [F. détraction, L. detractio.]
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Excuse for Wishing Her Less Fair is in the public domain. This text is taken from Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657. With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait., Project Gutenberg ebook #32986; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Stanley, Excuse for Wishing Her Less Fair, in Original Lyrics (1651), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32986, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stanley-lyrics/excuse-for-wishing-her-less-fair.html, id L08959.
Form and metre
Excuse for Wishing Her Less Fair is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 ABABCC moveA · lessB · aboveA · expressB · moreC · storeC
- 2 --AABB eye · inspire · — · — · lightB · sightB
- 3 -A-ABB appear · theeA · were · beA · knowB · soB
- 4 ABABCC lightA · eyesB · brightA · riseB · theeC · beC
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Why thy passion should it move | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| That I wished thy beauty less? | 8 | ···˘·/˘· |
| Fools desire what is above | 8 | ·˘/˘···· |
| Power of nature to express; | 8 | /˘·/˘·˘/ |
| And to wish it had been more | 7 | ······· |
| Had been to outwish her store. | 7 | ······· |
| If the flames within thine eye | 7 | ······· |
| Did not too great heat inspire, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Men might languish, yet not die, } | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| At thy less ungentle fire, } | 8 | ···˘/˘/˘ |
| And might on thy weaker light | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Gaze, and yet not lose their sight. | 7 | ······· |
| Nor wouldst thou less fair appear, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| For detraction adds to thee; | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| If some parts less beauteous were, | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| Others would much fairer be; | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Nor can any part we know | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Best be styl'd, when all are so. | 7 | ······· |
| Thus this great excess of light, | 7 | ···/··· |
| Which now dazzles our weak eyes, | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| Would, eclips'd, appear more bright; | 7 | ·˘/˘/·· |
| And the only way to rise, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Or to be more fair, for[29:3] thee, | 7 | ······· |
| Celia! is less fair to be. | 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.