To Marguerite. Continued
Yes! in the sea of life enisled,With echoing straits between us thrown,Dotting the shoreless watery wild,We mortal millions live alone.The islands feel the enclasping flow,And then their endless bounds they know.
But when the moon their hollows lights,And they are swept by balms of spring,And in their glens, on starry nights,The nightingales divinely sing;And lovely notes, from shore to shore,Across the sounds and channels pour,--
Oh! then a longing like despairIs to their farthest caverns sent;For surely once, they feel, we wereParts of a single continent!Now round us spreads the watery plain:Oh, might our marges meet again!
Who ordered that their longing’s fireShould be, as soon as kindled, cooled?Who renders vain their deep desire?--A God, a God their severance ruled!And bade betwixt their shores to beThe unplumbed, salt, estranging sea.
Words in this poem
- enisled p. a.
- Placed alone or apart, as if on an island; severed, as an island.
- shoreless a.
- Having no shore or coast; of indefinite or unlimited extent; as, a shoreless ocean. Young.
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- continent a.
- Serving to restrain or limit; restraining; opposing. [L. continens, -entis, prop., p. pr. of continere to hold together, to repress: cf. F. continent. See Contain.]
- severance n.
- The act of severing, or the state of being severed; partition; separation. Milman.
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
- betwixt prep.
- In the space which separates; between. [OE. betwix, bitwix, rarely bitwixt, AS. betweox, betweohs, betweoh, betwih; pref. be- by + a form fr. AS. twa two. See Between.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Marguerite. Continued 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, To Marguerite. Continued, in Poems (1849–1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #54985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/arnold-poems/to-marguerite-continued.html, id L06991.
Form and metre
To Marguerite. Continued is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 -A-ABB enisled · thrownA · wild · aloneA · flowB · knowB
- 2 ABABCC lightsA · springB · nightsA · singB · shoreC · pourC
- 3 -A-ABB despair · sentA · were · continentA · plainB · againB
- 4 ABABCC fireA · cooledB · desireA · ruledB · beC · seaC
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 iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Yes! in the sea of life enisled, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| With echoing straits between us thrown, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Dotting the shoreless watery wild, | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| We mortal millions live alone. | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| The islands feel the enclasping flow, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| And then their endless bounds they know. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But when the moon their hollows lights, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And they are swept by balms of spring, | 8 | ········ |
| And in their glens, on starry nights, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The nightingales divinely sing; | 8 | ·/˘˘˘/˘· |
| And lovely notes, from shore to shore, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Across the sounds and channels pour,-- | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| Oh! then a longing like despair | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Is to their farthest caverns sent; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| For surely once, they feel, we were | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Parts of a single continent! | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Now round us spreads the watery plain: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Oh, might our marges meet again! | 8 | ··//˘·˘/ |
| Who ordered that their longing’s fire | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Should be, as soon as kindled, cooled? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Who renders vain their deep desire?-- | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| A God, a God their severance ruled! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And bade betwixt their shores to be | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| The unplumbed, salt, estranging sea. | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.