To the Countess of S[Underland?] with the Holy Court
Since every place you bless, the nameThis book assumes may justlier claim.(What more a court than where you shine?And where your soul, what more divine?)You may perhaps doubt at first sightThat it usurps upon your right;And praising virtues that belongTo you, in others, doth you wrong.No, 'tis yourself you read, in allPerfections earlier ages callTheir own; all glories they e'er knewWere but faint prophecies of you.You then have here sole interest, whom 'tis meantAs well to entertain, as represent.
About this text
To the Countess of S[Underland?] with the Holy Court 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, To the Countess of S[Underland?] with the Holy Court, in Original Lyrics (1651), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32986, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stanley-lyrics/to-the-countess-of-s-underland-with-the-holy-court.html, id L08934.
Form and metre
To the Countess of S[Underland?] with the Holy Court is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG nameA · claimA · shineB · divineB · sightC · rightC · belongD · wrongD · allE · callE · knewF · youF · meantG · representG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Since every place you bless, the name | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| This book assumes may justlier claim. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| (What more a court than where you shine? | 8 | ········ |
| And where your soul, what more divine?) | 8 | ······˘/ |
| You may perhaps doubt at first sight | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| That it usurps upon your right; | 8 | ···/···· |
| And praising virtues that belong | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| To you, in others, doth you wrong. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| No, 'tis yourself you read, in all | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Perfections earlier ages call | 8 | ˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| Their own; all glories they e'er knew | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Were but faint prophecies of you. | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| You then have here sole interest, whom 'tis meant | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| As well to entertain, as represent. | 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.