On Her Dancing

James Shirley 1596 (London) – 1666 (London)



I stood and saw my Mistress dance,
Silent, and with so fixed an eye,
Some might suppose me in a trance:
But being asked why,
By one I who knew I was in love,
I could not but impart
My wonder, to behold her move
So nimbly with a marble heart.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

15 sec read
81

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDED
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 242
Words 53
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 8

James Shirley

James Shirley (or Sherley) was an English dramatist. He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Charles Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly the same language and had a set of moral feelings and notions in common." His career of play writing extended from 1625 to the suppression of stage plays by Parliament in 1642. more…

All James Shirley poems | James Shirley Books

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