The Ring
When I was flying before the KingIn the wood of Valognes in my hiding,Although I had not anythingI sent a woman a golden ring.
A Ring of the Moors beyond LeonWith emerald and with diamond stone,And a writing no man ever had known,And an opal standing all alone.
The shape of the ring the heart to bind:The emerald turns from cold to kind:The writing makes her sure to find:--But the evil opal changed her mind.
Now when the King was dead, was he,I came back hurriedly over the seaFrom the long rocks in NormandyTo Bosham that is by Selsey.And we clipt each other knee to knee.But what I had was lost to me.
About this text
The Ring is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #60663; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Hilaire Belloc, The Ring, in Sonnets and Verse (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/belloc-sonnets-verse/the-ring.html, id L21680.
Form and metre
The Ring is 18 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 89% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AAAA kingA · hidingA · anythingA · ringA
- 2 AAAA leonA · stoneA · knownA · aloneA
- 3 AAAA bindA · kindA · findA · mindA
- 4 AA--AA heA · seaA · normandy · selsey · kneeA · meA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When I was flying before the King | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| In the wood of Valognes in my hiding, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Although I had not anything | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I sent a woman a golden ring. | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| A Ring of the Moors beyond Leon | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| With emerald and with diamond stone, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And a writing no man ever had known, | 9 | ··/˘··/·· |
| And an opal standing all alone. | 9 | ··/˘/˘·˘/ |
| The shape of the ring the heart to bind: | 9 | ········· |
| The emerald turns from cold to kind: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The writing makes her sure to find:-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But the evil opal changed her mind. | 8 | ··//˘··· |
| Now when the King was dead, was he, | 8 | ········ |
| I came back hurriedly over the sea | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| From the long rocks in Normandy | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| To Bosham that is by Selsey. | 8 | ········ |
| And we clipt each other knee to knee. | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| But what I had was lost to me. | 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.