The Loss
Yet ere I go,Disdainful Beauty, thou shalt beSo wretched as to knowWhat joys thou fling'st away with me:
A faith so bright,As Time or Fortune could not rust,So firm, that lovers mightHave read thy story in my dust,
And crown'd thy nameWith laurel verdant as thy youth.Whilst the shrill voice of FameSpread wide thy beauty and my truth.
This thou hast lost!For all true lovers, when they findThat my just aims were crossed,Will speak thee lighter than the wind;
And none will layAny oblation on thy shrine,But such as would betrayTheir[56:1] faith to faiths as false as thine.
Yet if thou chooseOn such thy freedom to bestow,Affection may excuse:For love from sympathy doth flow.
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- oblation n.
- The act of offering, or of making an offering. [L. oblatio: cf. F. oblation. See Oblate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Loss 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 Loss, in Original Lyrics (1651), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32986, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stanley-lyrics/the-loss.html, id L08987.
Form and metre
The Loss is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.5 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% 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 ABAB goA · beB · knowA · meB
- 2 ABAB brightA · rustB · mightA · dustB
- 3 ABAB nameA · youthB · fameA · truthB
- 4 ABAB lostA · findB · crossedA · windB
- 5 ABAB layA · shrineB · betrayA · thineB
- 6 ABAB chooseA · bestowB · excuseA · flowB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Yet ere I go, | 4 | ···· |
| Disdainful Beauty, thou shalt be | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| So wretched as to know | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| What joys thou fling'st away with me: | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| A faith so bright, | 4 | ···· |
| As Time or Fortune could not rust, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| So firm, that lovers might | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Have read thy story in my dust, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And crown'd thy name | 4 | ···· |
| With laurel verdant as thy youth. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Whilst the shrill voice of Fame | 6 | ······ |
| Spread wide thy beauty and my truth. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| This thou hast lost! | 4 | ···· |
| For all true lovers, when they find | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That my just aims were crossed, | 7 | ······˘ |
| Will speak thee lighter than the wind; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And none will lay | 4 | ···· |
| Any oblation on thy shrine, | 8 | /˘˘/˘··· |
| But such as would betray | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Their[56:1] faith to faiths as false as thine. | 8 | ········ |
| Yet if thou choose | 4 | ···· |
| On such thy freedom to bestow, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Affection may excuse: | 6 | ˘/˘·˘/ |
| For love from sympathy doth flow. | 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.