We cover thee, sweet face
We cover thee, sweet face.Not that we tire of thee,But that thyself fatigue of us;Remember, as thou flee,We follow thee untilThou notice us no more,And then, reluctant, turn awayTo con thee o'er and o'er,And blame the scanty loveWe were content to show,Augmented, sweet, a hundred foldIf thou would'st take it now.
About this text
We cover thee, sweet face 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, We cover thee, sweet face, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/we-cover-thee-sweet-face.html, id L19043.
Form and metre
We cover thee, sweet face is 12 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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-------- face · theeA · us · fleeA · until · more · away · o'er · love · show · fold · now
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We cover thee, sweet face. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Not that we tire of thee, | 6 | ···/·· |
| But that thyself fatigue of us; | 8 | ··˘/˘/·· |
| Remember, as thou flee, | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| We follow thee until | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Thou notice us no more, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And then, reluctant, turn away | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| To con thee o'er and o'er, | 6 | ······ |
| And blame the scanty love | 6 | ···/˘· |
| We were content to show, | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Augmented, sweet, a hundred fold | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| If thou would'st take it now. | 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.