Three Worlds
WITHIN three worlds my Sorrow dwells;Each made her own by heavenly right;And one is sadly sweet and fair,And one is bright beyond compare,And one is void of light.
One is the world of long-past things;There she can go at will, and sitAnd sun herself in love’s embrace,And see upon a vanished faceThe tender, old-time meanings flit.
The second, veiled in glory dim,She only dares in part explore;Upon its misty bound she stands,And reaches out imploring handsAnd straining eyes, but does no more.
It is the world of unknown joy,Where thou, Beloved, amid thy kin,The saints of God, the Sons of Light,The company in robes of white,Hast been made free to enter in.
She sees thee, companied with these,Standing far off among the Blest,And is content to watch and wait,To stand afar without the gate,Nor interrupt thy perfect rest.
And so she turns, and down she sinksTo her third world, that dreary one,Which once was shared and lit by thee,And never any more can be,In which she dwelleth all alone.
It were too dark a world to bear,Could she not go, her pain to still,Into the fair world of the Past,Into the glory, sure and vast,Made thine by the Eternal Will.
In these three worlds my Sorrow sits,And each is dear because of thee;I joyed in that, I wait in this,And in the fulness of thy blissThou waitest too, I know, for me.
Words in this poem
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
- flit a.
- Nimble; quick; swift. See Fleet.
- veiled a.
- Covered by, or as by, a veil; hidden.
- explore v. t.
- To seek for or after; to strive to attain by search; to look wisely and carefully for. [L. explorare to explore; ex out+plorare to cry out aloud,prob. orig., to cause to flow; perh. akin to E. flow: cf. F. explorer.]
- imploring a.
- That implores; beseeching; entreating.
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Three Worlds 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, Three Worlds, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/three-worlds.html, id L23462.
Form and metre
Three Worlds is 40 lines in 8 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 dwells · rightA · fairB · compareB · lightA
- 2 -ABBA things · sitA · embraceB · faceB · flitA
- 3 -ABBA dim · exploreA · standsB · handsB · moreA
- 4 -ABBA joy · kinA · lightB · whiteB · inA
- 5 -ABBA these · blestA · waitB · gateB · restA
- 6 --AA- sinks · one · theeA · beA · alone
- 7 -ABBA bear · stillA · pastB · vastB · willA
- 8 -ABBA sits · theeA · thisB · blissB · meA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| WITHIN three worlds my Sorrow dwells; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Each made her own by heavenly right; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And one is sadly sweet and fair, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And one is bright beyond compare, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And one is void of light. | 6 | ······ |
| One is the world of long-past things; | 8 | ········ |
| There she can go at will, and sit | 8 | ········ |
| And sun herself in love’s embrace, | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| And see upon a vanished face | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The tender, old-time meanings flit. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The second, veiled in glory dim, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| She only dares in part explore; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Upon its misty bound she stands, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And reaches out imploring hands | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| And straining eyes, but does no more. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| It is the world of unknown joy, | 8 | ·····˘/· |
| Where thou, Beloved, amid thy kin, | 8 | ··˘/˘/·· |
| The saints of God, the Sons of Light, | 8 | ········ |
| The company in robes of white, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Hast been made free to enter in. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| She sees thee, companied with these, | 7 | ······· |
| Standing far off among the Blest, | 8 | /˘······ |
| And is content to watch and wait, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| To stand afar without the gate, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Nor interrupt thy perfect rest. | 8 | ··˘/·/·· |
| And so she turns, and down she sinks | 8 | ········ |
| To her third world, that dreary one, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Which once was shared and lit by thee, | 8 | ········ |
| And never any more can be, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| In which she dwelleth all alone. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| It were too dark a world to bear, | 8 | ········ |
| Could she not go, her pain to still, | 8 | ········ |
| Into the fair world of the Past, | 8 | ········ |
| Into the glory, sure and vast, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Made thine by the Eternal Will. | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| In these three worlds my Sorrow sits, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And each is dear because of thee; | 8 | ········ |
| I joyed in that, I wait in this, | 8 | ········ |
| And in the fulness of thy bliss | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thou waitest too, I know, for me. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
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.