Life
Life, believe, is not a dreamSo dark as sages say;Oft a little morning rainForetells a pleasant day.Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,But these are transient all;If the shower will make the roses bloom,O why lament its fall?Rapidly, merrily,Life's sunny hours flit by,Gratefully, cheerilyEnjoy them as they fly!What though Death at times steps in,And calls our Best away?What though sorrow seems to win,O'er hope, a heavy sway?Yet Hope again elastic springs,Unconquered, though she fell;Still buoyant are her golden wings,Still strong to bear us well.Manfully, fearlessly,The day of trial bear,For gloriously, victoriously,Can courage quell despair!
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- flit a.
- Nimble; quick; swift. See Fleet.
- cheerily adv.
- In a cheery manner.
- 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
Life 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, Life, in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1019, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bronte-poems/life.html, id L13218.
Form and metre
Life is 24 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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-ABCBC-D-DEAEAFGFG-H-H dream · sayA · rain · dayA · gloomB · allC · bloomB · fallC · merrily · byD · cheerily · flyD · inE · awayA · winE · swayA · springsF · fellG · wingsF · wellG · fearlessly · bearH · victoriously · despairH
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Life, believe, is not a dream | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| So dark as sages say; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Oft a little morning rain | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Foretells a pleasant day. | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Sometimes there are clouds of gloom, | 7 | ˘/····· |
| But these are transient all; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| If the shower will make the roses bloom, | 9 | ··/···/˘· |
| O why lament its fall? | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Rapidly, merrily, | 6 | /˘˘/˘˘ |
| Life's sunny hours flit by, | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| Gratefully, cheerily | 6 | /˘˘/˘˘ |
| Enjoy them as they fly! | 6 | ˘/···· |
| What though Death at times steps in, | 7 | ······· |
| And calls our Best away? | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| What though sorrow seems to win, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| O'er hope, a heavy sway? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Yet Hope again elastic springs, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Unconquered, though she fell; | 7 | ···˘··· |
| Still buoyant are her golden wings, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Still strong to bear us well. | 6 | ······ |
| Manfully, fearlessly, | 6 | /˘˘··· |
| The day of trial bear, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| For gloriously, victoriously, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Can courage quell despair! | 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.