A Greeting
OH, dear and friendly Death,End of my road, however long it be,Waiting with hospitable hands stretched outAnd full of gifts for me!
Why do we call thee foe,Clouding with darksome mists thy face divine?Life, she was sweet, but poor her largess seemsWhen matched with thine.
Thy amaranthine bloomsAre not less lovely than her rose of joy;And the rare, subtle perfumes which they breatheNever the senses cloy.
Thou holdest in thy storeFull satisfaction of all doubt, replyTo question, and the golden clews to dreamsWhich idly passed us by.
Darkness to tired eyes,Perplexed with vision, blinded with long day;Quiet to busy hands, glad to fold upAnd lay their work away.
A balm for anguish past,Rest to the long unrest which smiles did hide;The recognitions thirsted for in vain,And still by life denied.
A nearness, all unknownWhile in these stifling, prisoning bodies pent,Unto thy soul and mine, beloved, made oneAt last in full content.
Thou bringest me mine own,The garnered flowers which felt thy sickle keen,And the full vision of that Face divine,Which I have loved unseen.
Oh, dear and friendly Death,End of my road, however long it be,Nearing me day by day, I still can smileWhene’er I think of thee!
Words in this poem
- clouding n.
- A mottled appearance given to ribbons and silks in the process of dyeing.
- darksome a.
- Dark; gloomy; obscure; shaded; cheerless.
- largess n.
- Liberality; generosity; bounty. [F. largesse, fr. large. See Large, a.]
- amaranthine a.
- Of or pertaining to amaranth.
- cloy v. t.
- To fill or choke up; to stop up; to clog. [OE. cloer to nail up, F. clouer, fr. OF. clo nail, F. clou, fr. L. clavus nail. Cf. 3d Clove.]
- unrest n.
- Want of rest or repose; unquietness; sleeplessness; uneasiness; disquietude.
- pent p. p.
- Penned or shut up; confined; -- often with up. [From Pen, v. t.]
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Greeting is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Few More Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #49518; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Susan Coolidge, A Greeting, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/a-greeting.html, id L23504.
Form and metre
A Greeting is 36 lines in 9 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 -A-A death · beA · out · meA
- 2 -A-A foe · divineA · seems · thineA
- 3 -A-A blooms · joyA · breathe · cloyA
- 4 -A-A store · replyA · dreams · byA
- 5 -A-A eyes · dayA · up · awayA
- 6 -A-A past · hideA · vain · deniedA
- 7 -A-A unknown · pentA · one · contentA
- 8 -A-A own · keenA · divine · unseenA
- 9 -A-A death · beA · smile · theeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| OH, dear and friendly Death, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| End of my road, however long it be, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Waiting with hospitable hands stretched out | 9 | /˘·//˘··· |
| And full of gifts for me! | 6 | ······ |
| Why do we call thee foe, | 6 | ······ |
| Clouding with darksome mists thy face divine? | 10 | /˘·/˘···˘/ |
| Life, she was sweet, but poor her largess seems | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| When matched with thine. | 4 | ···· |
| Thy amaranthine blooms | 6 | ······ |
| Are not less lovely than her rose of joy; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And the rare, subtle perfumes which they breathe | 10 | ···/˘˘/··· |
| Never the senses cloy. | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Thou holdest in thy store | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Full satisfaction of all doubt, reply | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| To question, and the golden clews to dreams | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Which idly passed us by. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Darkness to tired eyes, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Perplexed with vision, blinded with long day; | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘··· |
| Quiet to busy hands, glad to fold up | 9 | /·/˘····· |
| And lay their work away. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| A balm for anguish past, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Rest to the long unrest which smiles did hide; | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| The recognitions thirsted for in vain, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| And still by life denied. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| A nearness, all unknown | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| While in these stifling, prisoning bodies pent, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Unto thy soul and mine, beloved, made one | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| At last in full content. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Thou bringest me mine own, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The garnered flowers which felt thy sickle keen, | 10 | ·/˘/···/˘· |
| And the full vision of that Face divine, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Which I have loved unseen. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Oh, dear and friendly Death, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| End of my road, however long it be, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Nearing me day by day, I still can smile | 10 | /˘········ |
| Whene’er I think of thee! | 7 | ······· |
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.