Meeting
Again I see my bliss at hand,The town, the lake, are here;My Marguerite smiles upon the strand,Unaltered with the year.
I know that graceful figure fair,That cheek of languid hue;I know that soft, enkerchiefed hair,And those sweet eyes of blue.
Again I spring to make my choice;Again in tones of ireI hear a God’s tremendous voice,--“Be counselled, and retire.”
Ye guiding Powers who join and part,What would ye have with me?Ah, warn some more ambitious heart,And let the peaceful be!
Words in this poem
- marguerite n.
- The daisy (Bellis perennis). The name is often applied also to the ox-eye daisy and to the China aster. [F., a pearl, a daisy. See Margarite.]
- enkerchiefed a.
- Bound with a kerchief; draped; hooded; covered.
- tremendous a.
- Fitted to excite fear or terror; such as may astonish or terrify by its magnitude, force, or violence; terrible; dreadful; as, a tremendous wind; a tremendous shower; a tremendous shock or fall. [L. tremendus that is to be trembled at, fearful, fr. tremere to tremble. See Tremble.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Meeting is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #54985; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Matthew Arnold, Meeting, in Poems (1849–1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #54985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/arnold-poems/meeting.html, id L06988.
Form and metre
Meeting is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 6% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB handA · hereB · strandA · yearB
- 2 ABAB fairA · hueB · hairA · blueB
- 3 ABAB choiceA · ireB · voiceA · retireB
- 4 ABAB partA · meB · heartA · beB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Again I see my bliss at hand, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| The town, the lake, are here; | 6 | ······ |
| My Marguerite smiles upon the strand, | 9 | ··˘/····· |
| Unaltered with the year. | 7 | ˘/˘˘··· |
| I know that graceful figure fair, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| That cheek of languid hue; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I know that soft, enkerchiefed hair, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| And those sweet eyes of blue. | 6 | ······ |
| Again I spring to make my choice; | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Again in tones of ire | 6 | ˘/···· |
| I hear a God’s tremendous voice,-- | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| “Be counselled, and retire.” | 7 | ·/˘˘·˘/ |
| Ye guiding Powers who join and part, | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| What would ye have with me? | 6 | ······ |
| Ah, warn some more ambitious heart, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| And let the peaceful be! | 6 | ···/˘· |
Notes from the edition 1
Matthew Arnold's own notes to his Poems (Project Gutenberg #54985), each headed by the line it glosses.
- Stanza 1, line 3 See, among “Early Poems,” the poem called “A Memory-Picture,” p. 23.
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