L'Envoy
In vain we supplicate the Powers above;There is no resurrection for the LoveThat, nursed in tenderest care, yet fades awayIn the chill'd heart by gradual self-decay.
Words in this poem
- resurrection n.
- A rising again; the resumption of vigor. [F. résurrection, L. resurrectio, fr. resurgere, resurrectum, to rise again; pref. re- re- + surgere to rise. See Source.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
L'Envoy is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Coleridge, Project Gutenberg ebook #8208; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, L'Envoy, in Poems of Coleridge (1796–1817), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8208, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coleridge-poems/l-envoy.html, id L00337.
Form and metre
L'Envoy is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in common measure. 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, 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 AABB aboveA · loveA · awayB · decayB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In vain we supplicate the Powers above; | 10 | ···/˘˘·/·· |
| There is no resurrection for the Love | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| That, nursed in tenderest care, yet fades away | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| In the chill'd heart by gradual self-decay. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
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.