A Valediction
If we must part,Then let it be like this;Not heart on heart,Nor with the useless anguish of a kiss;But touch mine hand and say:"Until to-morrow or some other day,If we must part."
Words are so weakWhen love hath been so strong:Let silence speak:"Life is a little while, and love is long;A time to sow and reap,And after harvest a long time to sleep.But words are weak."
Words in this poem
- reap n.
- A bundle of grain; a handful of grain laid down by the reaper as it is cut. Wright. [Cf. AS. rip harvest. See Reap, v.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Valediction is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson, With a Memoir by Arthur Symons, Project Gutenberg ebook #8497; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ernest Dowson, A Valediction, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/a-valediction.html, id L01652.
Form and metre
A Valediction is 14 lines in 2 stanzas of 7 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCCA. 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.3 syllables. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABABCCA partA · thisB · heartA · kissB · sayC · dayC · partA
- 2 ABABCCA weakA · strongB · speakA · longB · reapC · sleepC · weakA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| If we must part, | 4 | ···· |
| Then let it be like this; | 6 | ······ |
| Not heart on heart, | 4 | ···· |
| Nor with the useless anguish of a kiss; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| But touch mine hand and say: | 6 | ······ |
| "Until to-morrow or some other day, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| If we must part." | 4 | ···· |
| Words are so weak | 4 | ···· |
| When love hath been so strong: | 6 | ······ |
| Let silence speak: | 4 | ·/˘· |
| "Life is a little while, and love is long; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| A time to sow and reap, | 6 | ······ |
| And after harvest a long time to sleep. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But words are weak." | 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.