Colloque Sentimental
Into the lonely park all frozen fast,Awhile ago there were two forms who passed.
Lo, are their lips fallen and their eyes dead,Hardly shall a man hear the words they said.
Into the lonely park, all frozen fast,There came two shadows who recall the past.
"Dost thou remember our old ecstasy?"--"Wherefore should I possess that memory?"--
"Doth thine heart beat at my sole name alway?Still dost thou see my soul in visions?" "Nay!"--
"They were fair days of joy unspeakable,Whereon our lips were joined?"--"I cannot tell."--
"Were not the heavens blue, was not hope high?"--"Hope has fled vanquished down the darkling sky."--
So through the barren oats they wanderèd,And the night only heard the words they said.
Words in this poem
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
- whereon adv.
- On which; -- used relatively; as, the earth whereon we live.
- darkling a.
- Becoming dark or gloomy; frowing.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Colloque Sentimental 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, Colloque Sentimental, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/colloque-sentimental.html, id L01671.
Form and metre
Colloque Sentimental is 16 lines in 8 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 62% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AA fastA · passedA
- 2 AA deadA · saidA
- 3 AA fastA · pastA
- 6 AA unspeakableA · tellA
- 7 AA highA · skyA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Into the lonely park all frozen fast, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Awhile ago there were two forms who passed. | 10 | ˘/˘/······ |
| Lo, are their lips fallen and their eyes dead, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Hardly shall a man hear the words they said. | 10 | /˘········ |
| Into the lonely park, all frozen fast, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| There came two shadows who recall the past. | 10 | ···/··˘/·· |
| "Dost thou remember our old ecstasy?"-- | 11 | ··˘/˘/˘·/˘˘ |
| "Wherefore should I possess that memory?"-- | 10 | /˘··˘/·/˘˘ |
| "Doth thine heart beat at my sole name alway? | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Still dost thou see my soul in visions?" "Nay!"-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| "They were fair days of joy unspeakable, | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Whereon our lips were joined?"--"I cannot tell."-- | 10 | ˘//····/˘· |
| "Were not the heavens blue, was not hope high?"-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| "Hope has fled vanquished down the darkling sky."-- | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| So through the barren oats they wanderèd, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And the night only heard the words they said. | 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.