Retrospect
“Backward,” he said, “dear heart, I like to lookTo those half-spring, half-winter days, when firstWe drew together, ere the leaf-buds burst.Sunbeams were silver yet, keen gusts yet shookThe boughs. Have you remembered that kind bookThat for our sake Galeotto’s part rehearsed,(The friend of lovers,--this time blessed, not cursed!)And that best hour, when reading we forsook?”
She, listening, wore the smile a mother wearsAt childish fancies needless to control;Yet felt a fine, hid pain with pleasure blend.Better it seemed to think that love of theirs,Native as breath, eternal as the soul,Knew no beginning, could not have an end.
Words in this poem
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- cursed a.
- Deserving a curse; execrable; hateful; detestable; abominable.
- needless a.
- Having no need.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Retrospect is in the public domain. This text is taken from A chant of love for England, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #71425; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Helen Gray Cone, Retrospect, in A Chant of Love for England, and Other Poems (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #71425, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cone-chant-for-england/retrospect.html, id L22090.
Form and metre
Retrospect is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See 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 ABBAABBA lookA · firstB · burstB · shookA · bookA · rehearsedB · cursedB · forsookA
- 2 ABCABC wearsA · controlB · blendC · theirsA · soulB · endC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “Backward,” he said, “dear heart, I like to look | 10 | /˘········ |
| To those half-spring, half-winter days, when first | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| We drew together, ere the leaf-buds burst. | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Sunbeams were silver yet, keen gusts yet shook | 10 | /··/˘····· |
| The boughs. Have you remembered that kind book | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| That for our sake Galeotto’s part rehearsed, | 10 | ··/·····˘/ |
| (The friend of lovers,--this time blessed, not cursed!) | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And that best hour, when reading we forsook?” | 10 | ···/·/˘·˘/ |
| She, listening, wore the smile a mother wears | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| At childish fancies needless to control; | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Yet felt a fine, hid pain with pleasure blend. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Better it seemed to think that love of theirs, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Native as breath, eternal as the soul, | 10 | /˘··˘/˘··· |
| Knew no beginning, could not have an end. | 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.