Time Recover'd
Come, my Dear, whilst youth conspiresWith the warmth of our desires!Envious Time about thee watches,And some grace each minute snatches:Now a spirit, now a rayFrom thy eye he steals away;Now he blasts some blooming roseWhich upon thy fresh cheek grows;Gold now plunders in a hair;Now the rubies doth impairOf thy lips; and with sure hasteAll thy wealth will take at last;Only that of which thou mak'stUse in time, from Time thou tak'st.
Words in this poem
- envious a.
- Malignant; mischievous; spiteful. [OF. envios, F. envieux, fr. L. invidiosus, fr. invidia envy. See Envy, and cf. Invidious.]
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Time Recover'd 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, Time Recover'd, in Original Lyrics (1651), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32986, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stanley-lyrics/time-recover-d.html, id L08993.
Form and metre
Time Recover'd is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 86% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, 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 AABBCCBBDD--EE conspiresA · desiresA · watchesB · snatchesB · rayC · awayC · roseB · growsB · hairD · impairD · haste · last · mak'stE · tak'stE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Come, my Dear, whilst youth conspires | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| With the warmth of our desires! | 9 | ····/˘˘/˘ |
| Envious Time about thee watches, | 9 | /˘˘····/˘ |
| And some grace each minute snatches: | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Now a spirit, now a ray | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| From thy eye he steals away; | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Now he blasts some blooming rose | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Which upon thy fresh cheek grows; | 7 | ······· |
| Gold now plunders in a hair; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Now the rubies doth impair | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Of thy lips; and with sure haste | 7 | ······· |
| All thy wealth will take at last; | 7 | ······· |
| Only that of which thou mak'st | 7 | /˘····· |
| Use in time, from Time thou tak'st. | 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.