Oh! Snatched Away in Beauty's Bloom
Oh! snatched away in beauty's bloom,On thee shall press no ponderous tomb;But on thy turf shall roses rearTheir leaves, the earliest of the year;And the wild cypress wave in tender gloom:li
And oft by yon blue gushing streamShall Sorrow lean her drooping head,ljAnd feed deep thought with many a dream,And lingering pause and lightly tread;Fond wretch! as if her step disturbed the dead!
Away! we know that tears are vain,That Death nor heeds nor hears distress:Will this unteach us to complain?Or make one mourner weep the less?And thou--who tell'st me to forget,lkThy looks are wan, thine eyes are wet.ll
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- unteach v. t.
- To cause to forget, or to lose from memory, or to disbelieve what has been taught. [1st pref. un- + teach.]
- mourner n.
- One who mourns or is grieved at any misfortune, as the death of a friend.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Oh! Snatched Away in Beauty's Bloom is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 3, Project Gutenberg ebook #21811; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lord Byron, Oh! Snatched Away in Beauty's Bloom, in The Giaour, and Other Poems (1816), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21811, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-works-3/oh-snatched-away-in-beauty-s-bloom.html, id L23944.
Form and metre
Oh! Snatched Away in Beauty's Bloom is 16 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AABB- bloomA · tombA · rearB · yearB · gloom:li
- 2 A-ABB streamA · head,lj · dreamA · treadB · deadB
- 3 ABAB-- vainA · distressB · complainA · lessB · forget,lk · wet.ll
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh! snatched away in beauty's bloom, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| On thee shall press no ponderous tomb; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But on thy turf shall roses rear | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Their leaves, the earliest of the year; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And the wild cypress wave in tender gloom:li | 11 | ···/˘··/˘·· |
| And oft by yon blue gushing stream | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Shall Sorrow lean her drooping head,lj | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·· |
| And feed deep thought with many a dream, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And lingering pause and lightly tread; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Fond wretch! as if her step disturbed the dead! | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Away! we know that tears are vain, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| That Death nor heeds nor hears distress: | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Will this unteach us to complain? | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| Or make one mourner weep the less? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And thou--who tell'st me to forget,lk | 9 | ······˘/· |
| Thy looks are wan, thine eyes are wet.ll | 9 | ········· |
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.