Absence
’Tis not the loss of love’s assurance,It is not doubting what thou art,But ’tis the too, too long enduranceOf absence, that afflicts my heart.
The fondest thoughts two hearts can cherish,When each is lonely doomed to weep,Are fruits on desert isles that perish,Or riches buried in the deep.
What though, untouched by jealous madness,Our bosom’s peace may fall to wreck;The undoubting heart, that breaks with sadness,Is but more slowly doomed to break.
Absence! is not the soul torn by itFrom more than light, or life, or breath?’Tis Lethe’s gloom, but not its quiet,—The pain without the peace of death!
Words in this poem
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Absence is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell, Project Gutenberg ebook #59788; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Campbell, Absence, in The Pleasures of Hope, and Other Poems (1824), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59788, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campbell-poems/absence.html, id L24422.
Form and metre
Absence is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 -A-A assurance · artA · endurance · heartA
- 2 ABAB cherishA · weepB · perishA · deepB
- 3 A-A- madnessA · wreck · sadnessA · break
- 4 ABAB itA · breathB · quietA · deathB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| ’Tis not the loss of love’s assurance, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| It is not doubting what thou art, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But ’tis the too, too long endurance | 9 | ······/˘˘ |
| Of absence, that afflicts my heart. | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| The fondest thoughts two hearts can cherish, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| When each is lonely doomed to weep, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Are fruits on desert isles that perish, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Or riches buried in the deep. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| What though, untouched by jealous madness, | 9 | ··˘/·/˘/˘ |
| Our bosom’s peace may fall to wreck; | 8 | //˘····· |
| The undoubting heart, that breaks with sadness, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Is but more slowly doomed to break. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Absence! is not the soul torn by it | 9 | /˘······· |
| From more than light, or life, or breath? | 8 | ········ |
| ’Tis Lethe’s gloom, but not its quiet,— | 8 | ······/˘ |
| The pain without the peace of death! | 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.