To a Lost Love
I seek no more to bridge the gulf that liesBetwixt our separate ways;For vainly my heart prays,Hope droops her head and dies;I see the sad, tired answer in your eyes.
I did not heed, and yet the stars were clear;Dreaming that love could mateLives grown so separate;--But at the best, my dear,I see we should not have been very near.
I knew the end before the end was nigh:The stars have grown so plain;Vainly I sigh, in vainFor things that come to some,But unto you and me will never come.
Words in this poem
- betwixt prep.
- In the space which separates; between. [OE. betwix, bitwix, rarely bitwixt, AS. betweox, betweohs, betweoh, betwih; pref. be- by + a form fr. AS. twa two. See Between.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Lost Love 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, To a Lost Love, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/to-a-lost-love.html, id L01689.
Form and metre
To a Lost Love is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBAA, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.7 syllables. 20% 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 ABBAA liesA · waysB · praysB · diesA · eyesA
- 2 ABBAA clearA · mateB · separateB · dearA · nearA
- 3 -AABB nigh · plainA · vainA · someB · comeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I seek no more to bridge the gulf that lies | 10 | ·········· |
| Betwixt our separate ways; | 8 | ˘//˘/˘·· |
| For vainly my heart prays, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Hope droops her head and dies; | 6 | ······ |
| I see the sad, tired answer in your eyes. | 10 | ····//˘··· |
| I did not heed, and yet the stars were clear; | 10 | ·········· |
| Dreaming that love could mate | 6 | /˘···· |
| Lives grown so separate;-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But at the best, my dear, | 6 | ······ |
| I see we should not have been very near. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I knew the end before the end was nigh: | 10 | ·········· |
| The stars have grown so plain; | 6 | ······ |
| Vainly I sigh, in vain | 6 | /˘···· |
| For things that come to some, | 6 | ······ |
| But unto you and me will never come. | 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.