The Magnet
Ask the empress of the nightHow the Hand which guides her sphere,Constant in unconstant light,Taught the waves her yoke to bear,And did thus by loving forceCurb or tame the rude sea's course.
Ask the female palm how sheFirst did woo her husband's love;And the magnet, ask how heDoth th' obsequious iron move;Waters, plants, and stones know this:That they love; not what Love is.
Be not thou[19:2] less kind than these,Or from Love exempt alone!Let us twine like amorous trees,And like rivers melt in one.Or, if thou more cruel prove,Learn of steel and stones to love.
Words in this poem
- unconstant a.
- Not constant; inconstant; fickle; changeable.
- obsequious a.
- Promptly obedient, or submissive, to the will of another; compliant; yielding to the desires of another; devoted. [L.obsequiosus, fr. obsequium compliance, fr. obsequi, fr. obsequi: cf. F. obséquieux, See Obsequent, and cf. Obsequy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Magnet 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 Magnet, in Original Lyrics (1651), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32986, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stanley-lyrics/the-magnet.html, id L08948.
Form and metre
The Magnet is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 22% 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 nightA · sphereB · lightA · bearB · forceC · courseC
- 2 ABAB-- sheA · loveB · heA · moveB · this · is
- 3 A-A-BB theseA · alone · treesA · one · proveB · loveB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ask the empress of the night | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| How the Hand which guides her sphere, | 7 | ······· |
| Constant in unconstant light, | 7 | /˘·˘/˘· |
| Taught the waves her yoke to bear, | 7 | ······· |
| And did thus by loving force | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Curb or tame the rude sea's course. | 7 | ······· |
| Ask the female palm how she | 7 | ··/···· |
| First did woo her husband's love; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And the magnet, ask how he | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Doth th' obsequious iron move; | 8 | ·˘/˘˘/˘· |
| Waters, plants, and stones know this: | 7 | /˘····· |
| That they love; not what Love is. | 7 | ······· |
| Be not thou[19:2] less kind than these, | 7 | ······· |
| Or from Love exempt alone! | 7 | ···˘/˘/ |
| Let us twine like amorous trees, | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| And like rivers melt in one. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Or, if thou more cruel prove, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Learn of steel and stones to love. | 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.