Verses
They are not long, the weeping and the laughter.Love and desire and hate:I think they have no portion in us afterWe pass the gate.
They are not long, the days of wine and roses:Out of a misty dreamOur path emerges for a while, then closesWithin a dream.
About this text
Verses 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, Verses, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/verses-2.html, id L01616.
Form and metre
Verses is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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 ABAB laughterA · hateB · afterA · gateB
- 2 ABAB rosesA · dreamB · closesA · dreamB
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 trochaic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| They are not long, the weeping and the laughter. | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Love and desire and hate: | 7 | ··˘/˘·· |
| I think they have no portion in us after | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| We pass the gate. | 4 | ···· |
| They are not long, the days of wine and roses: | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Out of a misty dream | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Our path emerges for a while, then closes | 11 | /·˘/˘····/˘ |
| Within a dream. | 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.