Analysis of To a Lady who sent me a copy of verses at my going to bed

Henry King 1592 (Worminghall, Buckinghamshire) – 1669 (Chichester)



Lady your art or wit could nere devise
To shame me more then in this nights surprise.
Why I am quite unready, and my eye
Now winking like my candle, doth deny
To guide my hand, if it had ought to write;
Nor can I make my drowsie sense indite
Which by your verses musick (as a spell
Sent from the Sybellean Oracle)
Is charm'd and bound in wonder and delight,
Faster then all the leaden chains of night.
What pity is it then you should so ill
Employ the bounty of your flowing quill,
As to expend on him your bedward thought,
Who can acknowledge that large love in nought
But this lean wish; that fate soon send you those
Who may requite your rhimes with midnight prose?
Mean time, may all delights and pleasing Theams
Like Masquers revell in your Maiden dreams,
Whil'st dull to write, and to do more unmeet,
I, as the night invites me, fall asleep.


Scheme AABBCCDECCFFGCHHAICJ
Poetic Form
Metre 1011111101 1111101101 11111011 1101110101 1111111111 111111101 1111010101 1101100 1101010001 1011010111 1101111111 0101011101 110111111 1101011101 1111111111 11111111 1111010101 110101101 111101111 1101011101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 855
Words 163
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 20
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 665
Words per stanza (avg) 161
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

49 sec read
54

Henry King

Henry King was an English poet who served as Bishop of Chichester. more…

All Henry King poems | Henry King Books

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