When the Rose Is Faded
When the rose is faded,Memory may still dwell onHer beauty shadowed,And the sweet smell gone.
That vanishing loveliness,That burdening breathNo bond of life hath thenNor grief of death.
'Tis the immortal thoughtWhose passion stillMakes of the changingThe unchangeable.
Oh, thus thy beauty,Loveliest on earth to me,Dark with no sorrow, shinesAnd burns, with Thee.
Words in this poem
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
When the Rose Is Faded is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Listeners and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22569; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter de la Mare, When the Rose Is Faded, in The Listeners and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22569, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-listeners/when-the-rose-is-faded.html, id L17091.
Form and metre
When the Rose Is Faded is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.4 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 faded · onA · shadowed · goneA
- 2 -A-A loveliness · breathA · then · deathA
- 4 -A-A beauty · meA · shines · 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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When the rose is faded, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Memory may still dwell on | 6 | /˘···· |
| Her beauty shadowed, | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| And the sweet smell gone. | 5 | ····· |
| That vanishing loveliness, | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘˘ |
| That burdening breath | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| No bond of life hath then | 6 | ······ |
| Nor grief of death. | 4 | ···· |
| 'Tis the immortal thought | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Whose passion still | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Makes of the changing | 5 | ···/˘ |
| The unchangeable. | 5 | ····· |
| Oh, thus thy beauty, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Loveliest on earth to me, | 7 | ······· |
| Dark with no sorrow, shines | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And burns, with Thee. | 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.