Speaking and Kissing
The air which thy smooth voice doth breakInto my soul like lightning flies;My life retires whilst thou dost speak,And thy soft breath its room supplies.
Lost in this pleasing ecstasy,I join my trembling lips to thine,And back receive that life from thee,Which I so gladly did resign.
Forbear, platonic fools! t'inquireWhat numbers do the soul compose:No harmony can life inspire,But that which from these accents flows.
Words in this poem
- gladly adv.
- Preferably; by choice. [From Glad, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Speaking and Kissing 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, Speaking and Kissing, in Original Lyrics (1651), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32986, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stanley-lyrics/speaking-and-kissing.html, id L08972.
Form and metre
Speaking and Kissing is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% 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 break · fliesA · speak · suppliesA
- 2 -A-A ecstasy · thineA · thee · resignA
- 3 -A-A t'inquire · composeA · inspire · flowsA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The air which thy smooth voice doth break | 8 | ········ |
| Into my soul like lightning flies; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| My life retires whilst thou dost speak, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And thy soft breath its room supplies. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Lost in this pleasing ecstasy, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| I join my trembling lips to thine, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And back receive that life from thee, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Which I so gladly did resign. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Forbear, platonic fools! t'inquire | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| What numbers do the soul compose: | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| No harmony can life inspire, | 8 | ·/˘˘··˘/ |
| But that which from these accents flows. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
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.