Appeal

Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë (1816–1855) · 1846

common measure · 12 lines · from Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell

Oh, I am very weary,Though tears no longer flow;My eyes are tired of weeping,My heart is sick of woe;

My life is very lonelyMy days pass heavily,I'm weary of repining;Wilt thou not come to me?

Oh, didst thou know my longingsFor thee, from day to day,My hopes, so often blighted,Thou wouldst not thus delay!

Words in this poem

didst
, the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Appeal is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, Project Gutenberg ebook #1019; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, Appeal, in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1019, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bronte-poems/appeal.html, id L13267.

Form and metre

Appeal is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 6 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 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. 1 -A-A weary · flowA · weeping · woeA
  2. 3 -A-A longings · dayA · blighted · delayA
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.

LineSyl.Stress
Oh, I am very weary,7···/˘/˘
Though tears no longer flow;6···/˘·
My eyes are tired of weeping,8···/˘·/˘
My heart is sick of woe;6······
My life is very lonely7···/˘/˘
My days pass heavily,6···/˘˘
I'm weary of repining;7·/˘····
Wilt thou not come to me?6······
Oh, didst thou know my longings7·····/˘
For thee, from day to day,6······
My hopes, so often blighted,7···/˘/˘
Thou wouldst not thus delay!6····˘/

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.

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