Love and Death
UPON the threshold of his guarded homeStands Love the child.A thousand roses bloom above his headWith rain of dewy petals white and red;All fair and joyous things themselves arrayTo deck and soften for dear Love the way.He stands where often he has stood before;But now his face is pale, his eyes all wild,A strange and boding tread has caught his ear,An awful, hovering shape sweeps into view,And all his soul is rent with wrath and fear—What can Love do?
Poor Love! brave Love! he nerves his feeble arm,He grasps his bow;The dreadful guest has seized the rainbow wings.In vain Love strives with tears and shudderings,In vain he lifts appealing eyes of prayer;There is no pity or relenting there.No power has Love to deprecate or charm,Vain are his puny wiles against this foe;The roses wither in the icy breathWhich eddies the defenceless portals through,And, brushing Love aside, in passes Death—What can Love do?
Words in this poem
- boding a.
- Foreshowing; presaging; ominous.
- dreadful a.
- Full of dread or terror; fearful.
- appealing a.
- That appeals; imploring.
- deprecate v. t.
- To pray against, as an evil; to seek to avert by player; to desire the removal of; to seek deliverance from; to express deep regret for; to disapprove of strongly. [L. deprecatus, p. p. of deprecari to avert by player, to deprecate; de- + precari to pray. See Pray.]
- puny a.
- Imperfectly developed in size or vigor; small and feeble; inferior; petty. [F. puîté younger, later born, OF. puisné; puis afterwards (L. post; see Post-) + né born, L. natus. See Natal, and cf. Puisne.]
- brushing a.
- Constructed or used to brush with; as a brushing machine.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love and Death 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, Love and Death, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/love-and-death.html, id L23448.
Form and metre
Love and Death is 24 lines in 2 stanzas of 12 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 -ABBCC-ADEDE home · childA · headB · redB · arrayC · wayC · before · wildA · earD · viewE · fearD · doE
- 2 ABCCDDABEFEF armA · bowB · wingsC · shudderingsC · prayerD · thereD · charmA · foeB · breathE · throughF · deathE · doF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| UPON the threshold of his guarded home | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Stands Love the child. | 4 | ···· |
| A thousand roses bloom above his head | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| With rain of dewy petals white and red; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| All fair and joyous things themselves array | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘/ |
| To deck and soften for dear Love the way. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| He stands where often he has stood before; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But now his face is pale, his eyes all wild, | 10 | ·········· |
| A strange and boding tread has caught his ear, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| An awful, hovering shape sweeps into view, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And all his soul is rent with wrath and fear— | 10 | ·········· |
| What can Love do? | 4 | ···· |
| Poor Love! brave Love! he nerves his feeble arm, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| He grasps his bow; | 4 | ···· |
| The dreadful guest has seized the rainbow wings. | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| In vain Love strives with tears and shudderings, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| In vain he lifts appealing eyes of prayer; | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| There is no pity or relenting there. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| No power has Love to deprecate or charm, | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| Vain are his puny wiles against this foe; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The roses wither in the icy breath | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Which eddies the defenceless portals through, | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘· |
| And, brushing Love aside, in passes Death— | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| What can Love do? | 4 | ···· |
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.