Immortality I
When other beauty governs other lips,And snowdrops come to strange and happy springs,When seas renewed bear yet unbuilded ships,And alien hearts know all familiar things,When frosty nights bring comrades to enjoySweet hours at hearths where we no longer sit,When Liverpool is one with dusty Troy,And London famed as Attica for wit ...How shall it be with you, and you, and you,How with us all who have gone greatly hereIn friendship, making some delight, some trueSong in the dark, some story against fear?Shall song still walk with love, and life be brave,And we, who were all these, be but the grave?
Words in this poem
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Immortality I 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, Immortality I, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/immortality-i.html, id L23026.
Form and metre
Immortality I is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other English sonnets, 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG lipsA · springsB · shipsA · thingsB · enjoyC · sitD · troyC · witD · youE · hereF · trueE · fearF · braveG · graveG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When other beauty governs other lips, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| And snowdrops come to strange and happy springs, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| When seas renewed bear yet unbuilded ships, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| And alien hearts know all familiar things, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| When frosty nights bring comrades to enjoy | 10 | ·/˘··/··˘/ |
| Sweet hours at hearths where we no longer sit, | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| When Liverpool is one with dusty Troy, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And London famed as Attica for wit ... | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| How shall it be with you, and you, and you, | 10 | ·········· |
| How with us all who have gone greatly here | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| In friendship, making some delight, some true | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Song in the dark, some story against fear? | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Shall song still walk with love, and life be brave, | 10 | ·········· |
| And we, who were all these, be but the grave? | 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.