A day agone, as I rode sullenly
A day agone, as I rode sullenlyUpon a certain path that liked me not,I met Love midway while the air was hot,Clothed lightly as a wayfarer might be.And for the cheer he showed, he seemed to meAs one who hath lost lordship he had got;Advancing tow’rds me full of sorrowful thought,Bowing his forehead so that none should see.Then as I went, he called me by my name,Saying: “I journey since the morn was dimThence where I made thy heart to be: which nowI needs must bear unto another dame.”Wherewith so much passed into me of himThat he was gone, and I discerned not how.
Words in this poem
- rode n.
- Redness; complexion. [See Rud.]
- midway n.
- The middle of the way or distance; a middle way or course.
- wayfarer n.
- One who travels; a traveler; a passenger.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- dame n.
- A mistress of a family, who is a lady; a womam in authority; especially, a lady. [F. dame, LL. domna, fr. L. domina mistress, lady, fem. of dominus master, ruler, lord; akin to domare to tame, subdue. See Tame, and cf. Dam mother, Dan, Danger]
- wherewith adv.
- With which; -- used relatively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A day agone, as I rode sullenly is in the public domain. This text is taken from The New Life, Project Gutenberg ebook #41085, the Dante Gabriel Rossetti translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Dante Alighieri, A day agone, as I rode sullenly, in The New Life (1861), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #41085, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dante-vita-nuova/a-day-agone-as-i-rode-sullenly.html, id L27038.
Form and metre
A day agone, as I rode sullenly is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 -AABBA-BCDECDE sullenly · notA · hotA · beB · meB · gotA · thought · seeB · nameC · dimD · nowE · dameC · himD · howE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A day agone, as I rode sullenly | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Upon a certain path that liked me not, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I met Love midway while the air was hot, | 10 | ···/······ |
| Clothed lightly as a wayfarer might be. | 10 | ·˘/˘··/˘·· |
| And for the cheer he showed, he seemed to me | 10 | ·········· |
| As one who hath lost lordship he had got; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Advancing tow’rds me full of sorrowful thought, | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| Bowing his forehead so that none should see. | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Then as I went, he called me by my name, | 10 | ·········· |
| Saying: “I journey since the morn was dim | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Thence where I made thy heart to be: which now | 10 | ·········· |
| I needs must bear unto another dame.” | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Wherewith so much passed into me of him | 10 | ˘/········ |
| That he was gone, and I discerned not how. | 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.