Stanzas
I'll not weep that thou art going to leave me,There's nothing lovely here;And doubly will the dark world grieve me,While thy heart suffers there.
I'll not weep, because the summer's gloryMust always end in gloom;And, follow out the happiest story--It closes with a tomb!
And I am weary of the anguishIncreasing winters bear;Weary to watch the spirit languishThrough years of dead despair.
So, if a tear, when thou art dying,Should haply fall from me,It is but that my soul is sighing,To go and rest with thee.
Words in this poem
- languish v. i.
- To cause to dr Shak.
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Stanzas 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, Stanzas, in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1019, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bronte-poems/stanzas-3.html, id L13248.
Form and metre
Stanzas is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 19% 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 meA · hereB · meA · thereB
- 2 ABAB gloryA · gloomB · storyA · tombB
- 3 ABAB anguishA · bearB · languishA · despairB
- 4 ABAB dyingA · meB · sighingA · theeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I'll not weep that thou art going to leave me, | 10 | ······/··· |
| There's nothing lovely here; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And doubly will the dark world grieve me, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| While thy heart suffers there. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I'll not weep, because the summer's glory | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| Must always end in gloom; | 6 | ·/···· |
| And, follow out the happiest story-- | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| It closes with a tomb! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And I am weary of the anguish | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Increasing winters bear; | 6 | ˘/˘/˘· |
| Weary to watch the spirit languish | 9 | /˘···/˘/˘ |
| Through years of dead despair. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| So, if a tear, when thou art dying, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Should haply fall from me, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| It is but that my soul is sighing, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| To go and rest with thee. | 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.