The Hasty Kiss
A kiss I begg'd, and thou didst[64:1] joinThy[64:2] lips to mine;Then, as afraid, snatch'd[64:3] back their treasure,And mock'd[64:4] my pleasure.Again, my Dearest![64:5]--for in thisThou only gav'st[64:6] desire, and not a kiss.
Words in this poem
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Hasty Kiss 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, The Hasty Kiss, in Original Lyrics (1651), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32986, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stanley-lyrics/the-hasty-kiss.html, id L08999.
Form and metre
The Hasty Kiss is 6 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.3 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 --AABB join · mine · treasureA · pleasureA · thisB · kissB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A kiss I begg'd, and thou didst[64:1] join | 8 | ········ |
| Thy[64:2] lips to mine; | 4 | ···· |
| Then, as afraid, snatch'd[64:3] back their treasure, | 9 | ··˘/···/˘ |
| And mock'd[64:4] my pleasure. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Again, my Dearest![64:5]--for in this | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| Thou only gav'st[64:6] desire, and not a kiss. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
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.