Analysis of A Sweet Contention Between Love, His Mistress, And Beauty
Nicholas Breton 1558 (England) – 1626
Love and my mistress were at strife
Who had the greatest power on me:
Betwixt them both, oh, what a life!
Nay, what a death is this to be!
She said, she did it with her eye;
He said, he did it with his dart;
Betwixt them both (a silly wretch!)
'Tis I that have the wounded heart.
She said, she only spake the word
That did enchant my peering sense;
He said, he only gave the sound
That enter'd heart without defence.
She said, her beauty was the mark
That did amaze the highest mind;
He said, he only made the mist
Whereby the senses grew so blind.
She said, that only for her sake,
The best would venture life and limb:
He said, she was too much deceiv'd;
They honour'd her because of him.
Long while, alas, she would not yield,
But it was she that rul'd the roost;
Until by proof, she did confess,
If he were gone, her joy was lost.
And then she cried, 'Oh, dainty love,
I now do find it is for thee,
That I am lov'd and honour'd both,
And thou hast power to conquer me.'
But, when I heard her yield to love,
Oh! how my heart did leap for joy!
That now I had some little hope
To have an end to mine annoy!
But, as too soon, before the field
The trumpets sound the overthrow,
So all too soon I joy'd too much,
For I awaked, and nothing saw.
Scheme | ABAB XCDC XEXE XFXF XGXG HXXX IBXB IJXJ HXDX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (78%) |
Metre | 10110011 110101011 01111101 11011111 11111101 11111111 01110101 11110101 11110101 11011101 11110101 11010101 11010101 11010101 11110101 01010111 11110101 01110101 11111101 1100111 11011111 11111101 01111101 11010111 01111101 11111111 1111011 011101101 11110111 11111111 11111101 11111101 11110101 0101010 11111111 1110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,214 |
Words | 254 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 103 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 126 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"A Sweet Contention Between Love, His Mistress, And Beauty" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28393/a-sweet-contention-between-love%2C-his-mistress%2C-and-beauty>.
Discuss this Nicholas Breton poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In