Florine
Could I bring back lost youth again,And be what I have been,I’d court you in a gallant strain,My young and fair Florine.
But mine’s the chilling age that chidesDevoted rapture’s glow,And Love—that conquers all besides—Finds Time a conquering foe.
Farewell! we’re severed by our fate,As far as night from noon;You came into the world too late,And I depart so soon.
Florine was the beautiful Miss O’Bryen. She married Mr. HuntleyGordon—Scott’s amanuensis for the MS of the Waverley Novels—and died soonafter her wedding.
Words in this poem
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
- amanuensis n.
- A person whose employment is to write what another dictates, or to copy what another has written. [L., fr. a, ab + manus hand.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Florine 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, Florine, in The Pleasures of Hope, and Other Poems (1824), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59788, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campbell-poems/florine.html, id L24466.
Form and metre
Florine is 15 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in common measure.
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- againA · been · strainA · florine
- 2 ABAB chidesA · glowB · besidesA · foeB
- 3 ABAB fateA · noonB · lateA · soonB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Could I bring back lost youth again, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And be what I have been, | 6 | ······ |
| I’d court you in a gallant strain, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| My young and fair Florine. | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| But mine’s the chilling age that chides | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Devoted rapture’s glow, | 6 | ˘/˘/˘· |
| And Love—that conquers all besides— | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Finds Time a conquering foe. | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Farewell! we’re severed by our fate, | 9 | ·/·/˘·/˘· |
| As far as night from noon; | 6 | ······ |
| You came into the world too late, | 8 | ········ |
| And I depart so soon. | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Florine was the beautiful Miss O’Bryen. She married Mr. Huntley | 17 | ˘/˘··/˘····/˘/˘/˘ |
| Gordon—Scott’s amanuensis for the MS of the Waverley Novels—and died soon | 17 | /˘········/˘/˘··· |
| after her wedding. | 5 | ···/˘ |
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.