Wanting Is—What?
Wanting is--what?Summer redundant,Blueness abundant,--Where is the blot?Beamy the world, yet a blank all the same--Framework which waits for a picture to frame;What of the leafage, what of the flower?Roses embowering with naught they embower!Come then, complete incompletion, O comer,Pant through the blueness, perfect the summer!Breathe but one breathRose-beauty above,And all that was deathGrows life, grows love,Grows love!
Words in this poem
- blueness n.
- The quality of being blue; a blue color. Boyle.
- beamy a.
- Emitting beams of light; radiant; shining.
- leafage n.
- Leaves, collectively; foliage.
- embower v. t.
- To cover with a bower; to shelter with trees.
- incompletion n.
- Want of completion; incompleteness. Smart.
- comer n.
- One who comes, or who has come; one who has arrived, and is present. All comers, all who come, or offer, to take part in a matter, especially in a contest or controversy.
- pant v. i.
- To breathe quickly or in a labored manner, as after exertion or from eagerness or excitement; to respire with heaving of the breast; to gasp. [Cf. F. panteler to gasp for breath, OF. panteisier to be breathless, F. pantois out of breath; perh. akin to E. phantom, the verb prob. orig. meaning, to have t]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Wanting Is—What? 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, Wanting Is—What?, in Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning (1864), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #28041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/browning-selections/wanting-is-what.html, id L25127.
Form and metre
Wanting Is—What? is 15 lines in a single stanza.
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 -AA-BBCCDDEFEFF what · redundantA · abundantA · blot · sameB · frameB · flowerC · embowerC · comerD · summerD · breathE · aboveF · deathE · loveF · loveF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wanting is--what? | 4 | /˘·· |
| Summer redundant, | 5 | /˘˘/˘ |
| Blueness abundant, | 5 | /˘˘/˘ |
| --Where is the blot? | 4 | ···· |
| Beamy the world, yet a blank all the same | 10 | /˘········ |
| --Framework which waits for a picture to frame; | 10 | /·····/˘·· |
| What of the leafage, what of the flower? | 10 | ···/˘···/˘ |
| Roses embowering with naught they embower! | 12 | /˘·······˘/˘ |
| Come then, complete incompletion, O comer, | 11 | ··˘/·····/˘ |
| Pant through the blueness, perfect the summer! | 10 | ···/˘˘/·/˘ |
| Breathe but one breath | 4 | ···· |
| Rose-beauty above, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| And all that was death | 5 | ····· |
| Grows life, grows love, | 4 | ···· |
| Grows love! | 2 | ·· |
On this poem
Notes from the edition 1
Notes by Myra Reynolds, Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning (Project Gutenberg #28041).
- Line 9 Comer. The invocation probably refers to the spirit of love with its inspiring, transforming power.
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.