Love's Baptism
I'm ceded, I've stopped being theirs;The name they dropped upon my faceWith water, in the country church,Is finished using now,And they can put it with my dolls,My childhood, and the string of spoolsI've finished threading too.
Baptized before without the choice,But this time consciously, of graceUnto supremest name,Called to my full, the crescent dropped,Existence's whole arc filled upWith one small diadem.
My second rank, too small the first,Crowned, crowing on my father's breast,A half unconscious queen;But this time, adequate, erect,With will to choose or to reject.And I choose -- just a throne.
Words in this poem
- childhood n.
- The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
- consciously adv.
- In a conscious manner; with knowledge of one's own mental operations or actions.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love's Baptism is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, Love's Baptism, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/love-s-baptism.html, id L03594.
Form and metre
Love's Baptism is 19 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
- 3 ---AA- first · breast · queen · erectA · rejectA · throne
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I'm ceded, I've stopped being theirs; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The name they dropped upon my face | 8 | ········ |
| With water, in the country church, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Is finished using now, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And they can put it with my dolls, | 8 | ········ |
| My childhood, and the string of spools | 8 | ·/······ |
| I've finished threading too. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Baptized before without the choice, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| But this time consciously, of grace | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Unto supremest name, | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Called to my full, the crescent dropped, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Existence's whole arc filled up | 8 | ˘/˘˘···· |
| With one small diadem. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| My second rank, too small the first, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Crowned, crowing on my father's breast, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A half unconscious queen; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But this time, adequate, erect, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| With will to choose or to reject. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And I choose -- just a throne. | 6 | ······ |
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.