Hereafter
WHEN we are dead, when you and I are dead,Have rent and tossed aside each earthly fetterAnd wiped the grave-dust from our wondering eyes,And stand together, fronting the sunrise,I think that we shall know each other better.
Puzzle and pain will lie behind us then;All will be known and all will be forgiven.We shall be glad of every hardness past,And not one earthly shadow shall be castTo dim the brightness of the bright new heaven.
And I shall know, and you as well as I,What was the hindering thing our whole lives through,Which kept me always shy, constrained, distressed;Why I, to whom you were the first and best,Could never, never be my best with you;
Why, loving you as dearly as I did,And prizing you above all earthly good,I yet was cold and dull when you were by,And faltered in my speech or shunned your eye,Unable quite to say the thing I would;
Could never front you with the happy easeOf those whose perfect trust has cast out fear,Or take, content, from Love his daily dole,But longed to grasp and be and have the whole,As blind men long to see, the deaf to hear.
My dear Love, when I forward look, and thinkOf all these baffling barriers swept away,Against which I have beat so long and strained,Of all the puzzles of the past explained,I almost wish that we could die to-day.
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,]
- prizing n.
- The application of a lever to move any weighty body, as a cask, anchor, cannon, car, etc. See Prize, n., 5. [See 2d Prize.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hereafter 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, Hereafter, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/hereafter.html, id L23475.
Form and metre
Hereafter is 30 lines in 6 stanzas of 5 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 53% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 -ABBA dead · fetterA · eyesB · sunriseB · betterA
- 2 AABBA thenA · forgivenA · pastB · castB · heavenA
- 3 -ABBA i · throughA · distressedB · bestB · youA
- 4 AABBA didA · goodA · byB · eyeB · wouldA
- 5 -ABBA ease · fearA · doleB · wholeB · hearA
- 6 -ABBA think · awayA · strainedB · explainedB · dayA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| WHEN we are dead, when you and I are dead, | 10 | ·········· |
| Have rent and tossed aside each earthly fetter | 11 | ····˘/·/˘/˘ |
| And wiped the grave-dust from our wondering eyes, | 10 | ······//˘· |
| And stand together, fronting the sunrise, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·/· |
| I think that we shall know each other better. | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Puzzle and pain will lie behind us then; | 10 | /˘········ |
| All will be known and all will be forgiven. | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| We shall be glad of every hardness past, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| And not one earthly shadow shall be cast | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| To dim the brightness of the bright new heaven. | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| And I shall know, and you as well as I, | 10 | ·········· |
| What was the hindering thing our whole lives through, | 10 | ···/˘·/··· |
| Which kept me always shy, constrained, distressed; | 10 | ···/··˘/˘/ |
| Why I, to whom you were the first and best, | 10 | ·········· |
| Could never, never be my best with you; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Why, loving you as dearly as I did, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And prizing you above all earthly good, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| I yet was cold and dull when you were by, | 10 | ·········· |
| And faltered in my speech or shunned your eye, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Unable quite to say the thing I would; | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| Could never front you with the happy ease | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Of those whose perfect trust has cast out fear, | 10 | ···˘/····· |
| Or take, content, from Love his daily dole, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| But longed to grasp and be and have the whole, | 10 | ·········· |
| As blind men long to see, the deaf to hear. | 10 | ·········· |
| My dear Love, when I forward look, and think | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of all these baffling barriers swept away, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Against which I have beat so long and strained, | 10 | ·········· |
| Of all the puzzles of the past explained, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| I almost wish that we could die to-day. | 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.