Song: Torment of Absence and Delay
Torment of absence and delayThat thus afflicts my memory!Why dost thou kill me every day,Yet will not give me leave to die?Why dost thou suffer me to liveAll hope of life in life denying,Or to my patience tortures giveNever to die, yet ever dying?
To fair Narcissa's brighter eyesI was by Love's instruction guided,(A happiness I long did prize,)But now am from their light divided.Favours and gifts my suit obtain'd,But envious Fate would now destroy them,Which if to lose I only gain'd,What greater pain than to enjoy them?
Words in this poem
- envious a.
- Malignant; mischievous; spiteful. [OF. envios, F. envieux, fr. L. invidiosus, fr. invidia envy. See Envy, and cf. Invidious.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song: Torment of Absence and Delay 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, Song: Torment of Absence and Delay, in Original Lyrics (1651), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32986, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stanley-lyrics/song-torment-of-absence-and-delay.html, id L08996.
Form and metre
Song: Torment of Absence and Delay is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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 A-A-BCBC delayA · memory · dayA · die · liveB · denyingC · giveB · dyingC
- 2 ABABCDCD eyesA · guidedB · prizeA · dividedB · obtain'dC · themD · gain'dC · themD
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Torment of absence and delay | 8 | ˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| That thus afflicts my memory! | 8 | ··˘/·/˘˘ |
| Why dost thou kill me every day, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Yet will not give me leave to die? | 8 | ········ |
| Why dost thou suffer me to live | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| All hope of life in life denying, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Or to my patience tortures give | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Never to die, yet ever dying? | 9 | /˘···/˘/˘ |
| To fair Narcissa's brighter eyes | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I was by Love's instruction guided, | 9 | ····˘/˘/˘ |
| (A happiness I long did prize,) | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| But now am from their light divided. | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Favours and gifts my suit obtain'd, | 8 | /˘····˘/ |
| But envious Fate would now destroy them, | 9 | ·/˘···˘/· |
| Which if to lose I only gain'd, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| What greater pain than to enjoy them? | 9 | ·/˘···˘/· |
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.