Triolet: When First We Met We Did Not Guess
When first we met we did not guessThat Love would prove so hard a master;Of more than common friendlinessWhen first we met we did not guess.Who could foretell this sore distress,This irretrievable disasterWhen first we met?--We did not guessThat Love would prove so hard a master.
Words in this poem
- friendliness n.
- The condition or quality of being friendly. Sir P. Sidney.
- irretrievable a.
- Not retrievable; irrecoverable; irreparable; as, an irretrievable loss.
- disaster n.
- An unpropitious or baleful aspect of a planet or star; malevolent influence of a heavenly body; hence, an ill portent. [F. désastre; pref. dés- (L. dis-) + astre star, fr. L. astrum; a word of astrological origin. See Aster, Astral, Star.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Triolet: When First We Met We Did Not Guess is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Excluding the Eight Dramas, Project Gutenberg ebook #37804; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Bridges, Triolet: When First We Met We Did Not Guess, in The Growth of Love, and Other Poems (1873–1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37804, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bridges-shorter-poems/triolet-when-first-we-met-we-did-not-guess.html, id L20535.
Form and metre
Triolet: When First We Met We Did Not Guess is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABAAABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 ABAAABAB guessA · masterB · friendlinessA · guessA · distressA · disasterB · guessA · masterB
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 first we met we did not guess | 8 | ········ |
| That Love would prove so hard a master; | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Of more than common friendliness | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| When first we met we did not guess. | 8 | ········ |
| Who could foretell this sore distress, | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| This irretrievable disaster | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| When first we met?--We did not guess | 8 | ········ |
| That Love would prove so hard a master. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
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.