Stay, Phoebus!
Stay, Phoebus! stay;The world to which you fly so fast,Conveying dayFrom us to them, can pay your hasteWith no such object, nor salute your rise,With no such wonder as De Mornay's eyes.
Well does this proveThe error of those antique books,Which made you moveAbout the world; her charming looksWould fix your beams, and make it ever day,Did not the rolling earth snatch her away.
Words in this poem
- phoebus n.
- Apollo; the sun god.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Stay, Phoebus! is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham, Project Gutenberg ebook #12322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edmund Waller, Stay, Phoebus!, in Cooper's Hill, and Other Poems (1645–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waller-denham/stay-phoebus.html, id L09105.
Form and metre
Stay, Phoebus! is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCC. 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.3 syllables. 42% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 stayA · fastB · dayA · hasteB · riseC · eyesC
- 2 ABABCC proveA · booksB · moveA · looksB · dayC · awayC
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Stay, Phoebus! stay; | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The world to which you fly so fast, | 8 | ········ |
| Conveying day | 4 | ˘/˘· |
| From us to them, can pay your haste | 8 | ········ |
| With no such object, nor salute your rise, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| With no such wonder as De Mornay's eyes. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Well does this prove | 4 | ···· |
| The error of those antique books, | 8 | ·/˘··˘/· |
| Which made you move | 4 | ···· |
| About the world; her charming looks | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Would fix your beams, and make it ever day, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Did not the rolling earth snatch her away. | 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.