“KNOLEGE, AQUAYNTANCE, RESORT,
FAUOU R W IT H GR ACE” JOHN SKELTON
(1527) This is the third of fi ve poems collectively
given the title Dyvers Balettys and Dyties Solacyous. The
collection was probably printed in 1527, but the com-
position date may be signifi cantly earlier. The poem is
composed of seven STANZAs, each seven lines long,
except for the fi nal one, which ends with the tag line,
“Quod Skelton laureat” (Says Skelton, laureate). This
tag line is a concluding line common to four of the
lines in the collection and many other JOHN SKELTON
poems. The rhyme scheme is ababbcc, also known as
RHYME ROYAL. The concluding COUPLET at the end of
each rhyme royal stanza might suggest that each stanza
is a self-contained unit, when in fact the fi rst fi ve stan-
zas comprise one long sentence of praise to a woman.
Because of that initial, very long sentence, the poem
reads much like a list.
Each of the fi rst fi ve stanzas focuses on a different
type of praise for the beloved woman. In the fi rst, a
series of the woman’s mainly public virtues come tum-
bling forth. She has “knolege, aquayntance, resort, and
fauour with grace” (l. 1), which might be rendered as
“knowledge, acquaintances, places she is welcomed at,
and graceful beauty.” The second stanza notes the
beloved’s ability to soothe hearts fi lled with woe, pain,
and distress. The third stanza is highly Petrarchan,
offering comparisons of the beloved to topaz, rubies,
and pearls, among other gems. The fourth stanza asso-
ciates the woman with safety and light, comparing her
to a clear image in a mirror; the evening star, Hesper-
ides, which guides sailors; and an anchor. The fi fth
and fi nal stanza of the initial sentence addresses the
woman’s effect upon the speaker, who is awed by her
many wondrous qualities and rues her absence.
Although this poem uses Petrarchan CONCEITs, it is
unusual in that the speaker does not accuse the woman
of cruelty in making the speaker suffer for love. The
beloved can soothe pain, but she does not cause it.
Instead, the blame is placed on “absens” (absence),
which assails the speaker with “fere and drede” that
“abashyth” him, although, he is careful to note, “I haue
no need” (ll. 34–35). The persona recognizes that he
has no defi nite need to worry without his beloved, but
he cannot help it.
The tone of the speaker is somewhat impersonal in
the fi rst four stanzas; it is not at all clear for a long time
that the speaker is speaking of his own love for the
woman, although his heart does “oft lepe and sprynge”
when contemplating her behavior, goodness, and wom-
anhood (ll. 29–32). The speaker calls her the “Lodestar
to lyght these louers to theyr porte” (l. 25) although it is
not clear at fi rst whether “these lovers” are the speaker
and the woman, another couple, or lovers in general. By
the sixth stanza, the speaker reveals his personal feelings
for the woman. The speaker declares that if she wants to
know why absence is his foe: “Open myne hart, beholde
my mynde expres: / I wold you coud!” In these lines,
there is the sense that the breathless, fragmented stanzas
before are just what the speaker here proposes: an
unabashed, wholly exposed, opening up of himself.
Skelton says in the fi nal stanza that he has “grauyd”
(engraved) her “wythin the secret wall / Of my trew
hart” (ll. 48–49). He may have also “engraved” this
woman elsewhere: The fi rst letter of each stanza spells
out KATERYN, which may well be the name of the
otherwise unnamed woman so thoroughly blazoned
forth in this poem.
FURTHER READING
Fish, Stanley. John Skelton’s Poetry. New Haven, Conn., and
London: Yale University Press, 1965.
Halpern, Richard. The Poetics of Primitive Accumulation.
Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1991.
Scattergood, John, ed. John Skelton: The Complete English
Poems. New Haven, Conn., and London: Yale University
Press, 1983.
Kreg SegallKYRIELLE A popular poetic form of the Middle
Ages, the kyrielle is derived from the kyrie eleison (lord
have mercy)—an element of the pre-Reformation lit-
urgy. Kyrielles are usually written in QUATRAINs, with
the refrain as the last line. The most common rhyme
scheme is: aabB, ccbB, ddbB, eebB, etc., with B being the
refrain. Despite its liturgical origins, the kyrielle is not
limited in subject to religious works. For instance,
WILLIAM DUNBAR’s “LAMENT FOR THE MAKARIS” is a secu-
lar kyrielle. THOMAS CAMPION also wrote in the kyrielle
form, such as his poem “A Lenten Hymn.”
See also “JOLLY JANKYN.”KYRIELLE 237