On a Cornelian Heart Which Was Broken
Ill-fated Heart! and can it be,That thou shouldst thus be rent in twain?Have years of care for thine and theeAlike been all employed in vain?
Yet precious seems each shattered part,And every fragment dearer grown,Since he who wears thee feels thou artA fitter emblem of his own.
Words in this poem
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- fitter n.
- A little piece; a flitter; a flinder.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On a Cornelian Heart Which Was Broken 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, On a Cornelian Heart Which Was Broken, in The Giaour, and Other Poems (1816), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21811, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-works-3/on-a-cornelian-heart-which-was-broken.html, id L23846.
Form and metre
On a Cornelian Heart Which Was Broken is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 ABAB beA · twainB · theeA · vainB
- 2 ABAB partA · grownB · artA · ownB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ill-fated Heart! and can it be, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That thou shouldst thus be rent in twain? | 8 | ········ |
| Have years of care for thine and thee | 8 | ········ |
| Alike been all employed in vain? | 8 | ˘/··˘/·· |
| Yet precious seems each shattered part, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And every fragment dearer grown, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Since he who wears thee feels thou art | 8 | ········ |
| A fitter emblem of his own. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
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.