Dear and Incomparable
Dear and incomparableIs that love to meFlowing out of the woodlands,Out of the sea;Out of the firmament breathingBetween pasture and sky,For no reward is cherished hereTo reckon by.
It is not of my earning,Nor forfeit I canThis love that flows uponThe poverty of man,Though faithless and unkindI sleep and forgetThis love that asks no wage of meWaits my waking yet.
Of such is the love, dear,That you fold me in,It knows no governanceOf virtue or sin;From nothing of my achievingShall it enrichment take,And the glooms of my unworthinessIt will not forsake.
Words in this poem
- incomparable a.
- Not comparable; admitting of no comparison with others; unapproachably eminent; without a peer or equal; matchless; peerless; transcendent. [L. incomparabilis: cf. F. incomparable. See In- not, and Comparable.]
- firmament n.
- Fixed foundation; established basis. [L. firmamentum, fr. firmare to make firm: cf. F. firmament. See Firm, v. & a.]
- earning n.
- That which is earned; wages gained by work or services; money earned; -- used commonly in the plural.
- unkind a.
- Having no race or kindred; childless. [See Kin kindred.]
- wage v. i.
- To bind one's self; to engage.
- governance n.
- Exercise of authority; control; government; arrangement. [F. gouvernance.]
- 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,]
- enrichment n.
- The act of making rich, or that which enriches; increase of value by improvements, embellishment, etc.; decoration; embellishment.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dear and Incomparable is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, 1908-1919, Project Gutenberg ebook #51575; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Drinkwater, Dear and Incomparable, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/dear-and-incomparable.html, id L23076.
Form and metre
Dear and Incomparable is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
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-B-B incomparable · meA · woodlands · seaA · breathing · skyB · here · byB
- 2 -A-A-B-B earning · canA · upon · manA · unkind · forgetB · me · yetB
- 3 -A-A-B-B dear · inA · governance · sinA · achieving · takeB · unworthiness · forsakeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dear and incomparable | 7 | ··˘/˘˘˘ |
| Is that love to me | 5 | ····· |
| Flowing out of the woodlands, | 7 | /˘···/· |
| Out of the sea; | 4 | ···· |
| Out of the firmament breathing | 8 | ···/˘˘/˘ |
| Between pasture and sky, | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| For no reward is cherished here | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| To reckon by. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| It is not of my earning, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Nor forfeit I can | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| This love that flows upon | 6 | ······ |
| The poverty of man, | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| Though faithless and unkind | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| I sleep and forget | 5 | ···˘/ |
| This love that asks no wage of me | 8 | ········ |
| Waits my waking yet. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Of such is the love, dear, | 6 | ······ |
| That you fold me in, | 5 | ····· |
| It knows no governance | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Of virtue or sin; | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| From nothing of my achieving | 8 | ·/˘··˘/˘ |
| Shall it enrichment take, | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| And the glooms of my unworthiness | 9 | ········· |
| It will not forsake. | 5 | ···˘/ |
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.