If This Be All
O God! if this indeed be allThat Life can show to me;If on my aching brow may fallNo freshening dew from Thee;
If with no brighter light than thisThe lamp of hope may glow,And I may only dream of bliss,And wake to weary woe;
If friendship's solace must decay,When other joys are gone,And love must keep so far away,While I go wandering on,--
Wandering and toiling without gain,The slave of others' will,With constant care, and frequent pain,Despised, forgotten still;
Grieving to look on vice and sin,Yet powerless to quellThe silent current from within,The outward torrent's swell
While all the good I would impart,The feelings I would share,Are driven backward to my heart,And turned to wormwood there;
If clouds must EVER keep from sightThe glories of the Sun,And I must suffer Winter's blight,Ere Summer is begun;
If Life must be so full of care,Then call me soon to thee;Or give me strength enough to bearMy load of misery.
Words in this poem
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
- solace n.
- Comfort in grief; alleviation of grief or anxiety; also, that which relieves in distress; that which cheers or consoles; relief. [OF. solas, ssoulaz, L. solacium, solatium, fr. solari to comfort, console. Cf. Console, v. t.]
- quell v. t.
- To take the life of; to kill. [OE. quellen to kill, AS. cwellan, causative of cwelan to die; akin to OHG. quellen to torment, Icel. kvelja. See Quail to cower.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
If This Be All 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, If This Be All, in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1019, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bronte-poems/if-this-be-all.html, id L13258.
Form and metre
If This Be All is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 7 of its 8 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 22% 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 allA · meB · fallA · theeB
- 2 ABAB thisA · glowB · blissA · woeB
- 3 ABAB decayA · goneB · awayA · onB
- 4 ABAB gainA · willB · painA · stillB
- 5 ABAB sinA · quellB · withinA · swellB
- 6 ABAB impartA · shareB · heartA · thereB
- 7 ABAB sightA · sunB · blightA · begunB
- 8 A-A- careA · thee · bearA · misery
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O God! if this indeed be all | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| That Life can show to me; | 6 | ······ |
| If on my aching brow may fall | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| No freshening dew from Thee; | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| If with no brighter light than this | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The lamp of hope may glow, | 6 | ······ |
| And I may only dream of bliss, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And wake to weary woe; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| If friendship's solace must decay, | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| When other joys are gone, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And love must keep so far away, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| While I go wandering on,-- | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Wandering and toiling without gain, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| The slave of others' will, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| With constant care, and frequent pain, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Despised, forgotten still; | 7 | ˘/˘˘/˘· |
| Grieving to look on vice and sin, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Yet powerless to quell | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| The silent current from within, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The outward torrent's swell | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| While all the good I would impart, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The feelings I would share, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Are driven backward to my heart, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And turned to wormwood there; | 7 | ··˘·/·· |
| If clouds must EVER keep from sight | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The glories of the Sun, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And I must suffer Winter's blight, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Ere Summer is begun; | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| If Life must be so full of care, | 8 | ········ |
| Then call me soon to thee; | 6 | ······ |
| Or give me strength enough to bear | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| My load of misery. | 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.