My Star
All that I knowOf a certain starIs, it can throw(Like the angled spar)Now a dart of red,Now a dart of blue;Till my friends have saidThey would fain see, too,My star that dartles the red and the blue!Then it stops like a bird; like a flower, hangs furled:They must solace themselves with the Saturn above it.What matter to me if their star is a world?Mine has opened its soul to me; therefore I love it.
Words in this poem
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- 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.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
My Star is in the public domain. This text is taken from Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning, Project Gutenberg ebook #28041; 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 Browning, My Star, in Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning (1864), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #28041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/browning-selections/my-star.html, id L25094.
Form and metre
My Star is 13 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDDEFEF.
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 ABABCDCDDEFEF knowA · starB · throwA · sparB · redC · blueD · saidC · tooD · blueD · furledE · itF · worldE · itF
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| All that I know | 4 | ···· |
| Of a certain star | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Is, it can throw | 4 | ···· |
| (Like the angled spar) | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Now a dart of red, | 5 | ····· |
| Now a dart of blue; | 5 | ····· |
| Till my friends have said | 5 | ····· |
| They would fain see, too, | 5 | ····· |
| My star that dartles the red and the blue! | 9 | ········· |
| Then it stops like a bird; like a flower, hangs furled: | 11 | ········/·· |
| They must solace themselves with the Saturn above it. | 13 | ··/˘˘/··/˘··· |
| What matter to me if their star is a world? | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Mine has opened its soul to me; therefore I love it. | 13 | ··/˘········· |
Notes from the edition 1
Notes by Myra Reynolds, Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning (Project Gutenberg #28041).
- Line 4 The angled spar. A prism. In looking at a prism the colors one sees are determined by the point of view. The idea of the poem is amplified in "One Word More," stanzas xvi-xviii.
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.