To Flavia
'Tis not your beauty can engageMy wary heart;The sun, in all his pride and rage,Has not that art;And yet he shines as bright as you,If brightness could our souls subdue.
'Tis not the pretty things you say,Nor those you write,Which can make Thyrsis' heart your prey:For that delight,The graces of a well-taught mind,In some of our own sex we find.
No, Flavia! 'tis your love I fear;Love's surest darts,Those which so seldom fail him, areHeaded with hearts;Their very shadows make us yield;Dissemble well, and win the field.
Words in this poem
- dissemble v. t.
- To hide under a false semblance or seeming; to feign (something) not to be what it really is; to put an untrue appearance upon; to disguise; to mask. [OF. dissembler to be dissimilar; pref. dis- (L. dis-) + F. sembler to seem, L. simulare to simulate; cf. L. dissimulare to dissemble. See Simulate, and cf. Diss]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Flavia 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, To Flavia, in Poetical Works (1645–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waller-denham/to-flavia.html, id L09108.
Form and metre
To Flavia is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 11% 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 ABABCC engageA · heartB · rageA · artB · youC · subdueC
- 2 ABABCC sayA · writeB · preyA · delightB · mindC · findC
- 3 -A-ABB fear · dartsA · are · heartsA · yieldB · fieldB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 'Tis not your beauty can engage | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| My wary heart; | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The sun, in all his pride and rage, | 8 | ········ |
| Has not that art; | 4 | ···· |
| And yet he shines as bright as you, | 8 | ········ |
| If brightness could our souls subdue. | 9 | ·/˘·/˘·˘/ |
| 'Tis not the pretty things you say, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Nor those you write, | 4 | ···· |
| Which can make Thyrsis' heart your prey: | 8 | ········ |
| For that delight, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| The graces of a well-taught mind, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In some of our own sex we find. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| No, Flavia! 'tis your love I fear; | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| Love's surest darts, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Those which so seldom fail him, are | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Headed with hearts; | 4 | /˘·· |
| Their very shadows make us yield; | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| Dissemble well, and win the field. | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
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.