The Lover to His Mistress on Her Birth-Day
If any white-winged Power aboveMy joys and griefs survey,The day when thou wert born, my love—He surely blessed that day.
I laughed (till taught by thee) when toldOf Beauty’s magic powers,That ripened life’s dull ore to gold,And changed its weeds to flowers.
My mind had lovely shapes portrayed,But thought I earth had oneCould make e’en Fancy’s visions fadeLike stars before the sun?
I gazed, and felt upon my lipsThe unfinished accents hang:One moment’s bliss, one burning kiss,To rapture changed each pang.
And though as swift as lightning’s flashThose trancèd moments flew,Not all the waves of time shall washTheir memory from my view.
But duly shall my raptured song,And gladly shall my eyesStill bless this day’s return, as longAs thou shalt see it rise.
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,]
- gladly adv.
- Preferably; by choice. [From Glad, a.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Lover to His Mistress on Her Birth-Day 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, The Lover to His Mistress on Her Birth-Day, in The Pleasures of Hope, and Other Poems (1824), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59788, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campbell-poems/the-lover-to-his-mistress-on-her-birth-day.html, id L24416.
Form and metre
The Lover to His Mistress on Her Birth-Day is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
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 ABAB aboveA · surveyB · loveA · dayB
- 2 ABAB toldA · powersB · goldA · flowersB
- 3 ABAB portrayedA · oneB · fadeA · sunB
- 4 -A-A lips · hangA · kiss · pangA
- 5 -A-A flash · flewA · wash · viewA
- 6 ABAB songA · eyesB · longA · riseB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If any white-winged Power above | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| My joys and griefs survey, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| The day when thou wert born, my love— | 8 | ········ |
| He surely blessed that day. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I laughed (till taught by thee) when told | 8 | ········ |
| Of Beauty’s magic powers, | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| That ripened life’s dull ore to gold, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And changed its weeds to flowers. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| My mind had lovely shapes portrayed, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| But thought I earth had one | 6 | ······ |
| Could make e’en Fancy’s visions fade | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Like stars before the sun? | 6 | ······ |
| I gazed, and felt upon my lips | 8 | ········ |
| The unfinished accents hang: | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘· |
| One moment’s bliss, one burning kiss, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To rapture changed each pang. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And though as swift as lightning’s flash | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Those trancèd moments flew, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Not all the waves of time shall wash | 8 | ········ |
| Their memory from my view. | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| But duly shall my raptured song, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And gladly shall my eyes | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Still bless this day’s return, as long | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| As thou shalt see it rise. | 6 | ······ |
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.