The Only Sure Friend of Declining Life a Soliloquy
Unchanged within, to see all changed without,Is a blank lot and hard to bear, no doubt.Yet why at others' wanings should'st thou fret?Then only might'st thou feel a just regret,Hadst thou withheld thy love or hid thy lightIn selfish forethought of neglect and slight.O wiselier then, from feeble yearnings freed,While, and on whom, thou may'st--shine on! nor heedWhether the object by reflected lightReturn thy radiance or absorb it quite:And though thou notest from thy safe recessOld friends burn dim, like lamps in noisome air,Love them for what they are; nor love them less,Because to thee they are not what they were.
Words in this poem
- forethought a.
- Thought of, or planned, beforehand; aforethought; prepense; hence, deliberate.
- yearnings n.
- The maws, or stomachs, of young calves, used a rennet for curdling milk. [Cf. AS. geirnan, geyrnan, to rum. See 4th Earn.]
- noisome a.
- Noxious to health; hurtful; mischievous; unwholesome; insalubrious; destructive; as, noisome effluvia. [For noysome, fr. noy for annoy. See Annoy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Only Sure Friend of Declining Life a Soliloquy 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, The Only Sure Friend of Declining Life a Soliloquy, in Poems of Coleridge (1796–1817), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8208, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coleridge-poems/the-only-sure-friend-of-declining-life-a-soliloquy.html, id L00338.
Form and metre
The Only Sure Friend of Declining Life a Soliloquy is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 71% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCCDDCCE-E- withoutA · doubtA · fretB · regretB · lightC · slightC · freedD · heedD · lightC · quiteC · recessE · air · lessE · were
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Unchanged within, to see all changed without, | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Is a blank lot and hard to bear, no doubt. | 10 | ·········· |
| Yet why at others' wanings should'st thou fret? | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Then only might'st thou feel a just regret, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Hadst thou withheld thy love or hid thy light | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| In selfish forethought of neglect and slight. | 10 | ·/˘/··˘/·· |
| O wiselier then, from feeble yearnings freed, | 11 | ······/˘/˘· |
| While, and on whom, thou may'st--shine on! nor heed | 10 | ·········· |
| Whether the object by reflected light | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Return thy radiance or absorb it quite: | 10 | ˘/·/˘·˘/·· |
| And though thou notest from thy safe recess | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Old friends burn dim, like lamps in noisome air, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Love them for what they are; nor love them less, | 10 | ·········· |
| Because to thee they are not what they were. | 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.