The Relapse
O turn away those cruel eyes,The stars of my undoing!Or death, in such a bright disguise,May tempt a second wooing.
Punish their blindly impious[59:2] pride,Who dare contemn thy glory!It was my fall[59:3] that deifiedThy name, and seal'd thy story.
Yet no new sufferings can prepareA higher praise to crown thee;Though my first death proclaim thee fair,My second will unthrone thee.
Lovers will doubt thou canst enticeNo other for thy fuel,And if thou burn one victim twice,Both think thee poor and cruel!
Words in this poem
- undoing n.
- The reversal of what has been done.
- blindly adv.
- Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own.
- contemn v. t.
- To view or treat with contempt, as mean and despicable; to reject with disdain; to despise; to scorn. [L. contemnere, -temptum; con- + temnere to slight, despise: cf. OF. contemner.]
- unthrone v. t.
- To remove from, or as from, a throne; to dethrone. [1st pref. un- + throne.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Relapse 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 Relapse, in Original Lyrics (1651), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32986, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stanley-lyrics/the-relapse.html, id L08989.
Form and metre
The Relapse is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 19% 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 eyesA · undoingB · disguiseA · wooingB
- 2 ABAB prideA · gloryB · deifiedA · storyB
- 3 ABAB prepareA · theeB · fairA · theeB
- 4 ABAB enticeA · fuelB · twiceA · cruelB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O turn away those cruel eyes, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| The stars of my undoing! | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Or death, in such a bright disguise, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| May tempt a second wooing. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Punish their blindly impious[59:2] pride, | 9 | /˘·/˘˘/˘· |
| Who dare contemn thy glory! | 7 | ··˘/·/˘ |
| It was my fall[59:3] that deified | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thy name, and seal'd thy story. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Yet no new sufferings can prepare | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| A higher praise to crown thee; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Though my first death proclaim thee fair, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| My second will unthrone thee. | 7 | ·/˘·˘/· |
| Lovers will doubt thou canst entice | 8 | /˘····˘/ |
| No other for thy fuel, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| And if thou burn one victim twice, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Both think thee poor and cruel! | 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.